Beschreibung:

KEATS, John (1795-1821). Endymion: A Poetic Romance . London: Taylor and Hessey, 1818. John Clare’s copy of the first edition of Keats’s Endymion : an extraordinary association copy linking two of the great English poets. John Keats referred to the writing of Endymion as ‘a test, a trial of my Powers of Imagination and chiefly of my invention’. The second of only three lifetime publications, Endymion was a ‘feverish attempt’ at a long poem, showcasing moments of genius as well as poetic immaturity. Its reception amongst critics was famously savage, but it found a great admirer in John Clare (1793-1864), who received the present copy from their shared publisher John Taylor Clare writes to Taylor in April 1820, 'I dont know wether I shall return Keats Endymion think as you will I begin to like it much'. He then transcribes a couple of lines from Book II that particularly delight him, to which Taylor replies, 'You have pointed out a very beautiful Passage in Endymion, which I well remembered. – The Book, my good Fellow, is yours’. In the words of his biographer Jonathan Bate, Clare is ‘the greatest labouring-class poet that England has ever produced’. His work is celebrated for its abundant joy in the natural world and its closeness to the wilds of rural England before the Enclosure Acts, while it is often also charged with suffering and despair. Although they never met, Clare felt a strong connection with Keats based on ‘elements of class solidarity, sympathy for Keats’s victimisation by the critics, and humane recognition of his catastrophically failing health’ (Goodridge, p.82). In total, references to Keats occur in 24 of Clare’s letters, many of which show a touching concern for the poet’s physical wellbeing during the throes of tuberculosis. Clare’s inscription in the present volume, dated the year after he acquired the book, was perhaps motivated by the news he received in March 1821 of Keats’s tragic death in Rome a month earlier. John Goodridge. John Clare and Community . Cambridge University Press, 2013; Jonathan Bate. John Clare . London: Picador, 2003; MacGillivray 2; Tidcombe, The Doves Bindery , 718. Octavo (209 x 130mm). Half-title with ‘Printed by T. Miller Noble Street, Cheapside’ on verso, one-line erratum leaf, 5-line errata slip at rear (a few spots, outer sheet of first two quires mounted on stub). Olive-brown crushed morocco by the Doves Bindery, elaborately gilt with strapwork decoration, crescents in circles above and below, tooled with oak leaves at the corners, an oak leaf wreath in the centre, tiny stars, flat spine in six compartments, intricately tooled and lettered ‘ENDYMION’ and ‘1818’, signed and dated 1908 in gilt on rear turn-in, edges gilt (tiny split at foot of upper joint, lightly faded). Provenance : John Clare (1793-1864; inscription on half-title: ‘John Clare / Helpstone / 1821’) – John Taylor (noted Northampton antiquarian who purchased Clare’s library after his death) – Clare Collection, Northampton Museum (purchased by public subscription in 1866) – Puttick & Simpson, July 16th, 1902, lot 69, purchased for £14 by: – Sotheran’s (bookseller; 1904 catalogue, item 353, priced at £21) – E. L. Brooks, Minneapolis (bound for him by the Doves Bindery in 1908) – Dr Dallas Doxford (1904-1994; bookplate).