FIRST EDITION OF DIARY, REMINISCENCES, AND CORRESPONDENCE OF HENRY CRABB ROBINSON, FINELY BOUND AND EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH 300 PLATES AND PORTRAITS

(ROBINSON, Henry Crabb). SADLER, Thomas, editor. Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence of Henry Crabb Robinson, Barrister-at-Law, F.S.A. London: Macmillan, 1869. Three volumes bound in six. Large octavo, early 20th-century full brown calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, brown morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut. $2200.

First edition, extra-illustrated with 300 plates, handsomely bound by Sangorski & Sutcliffe.

As a man of letters, a Times foreign editor and war correspondent, a barrister, a respected conversationalist, and a member of the literary elite whose friends included Lamb, Coleridge, Schiller, Wordsworth, Goethe and Southey, Henry Crabb Robinson grew to become the quintessential 19th-century scholarly gentleman. At his death, he left behind over a hundred volumes of diaries, journals, letters, and other personal writings, which gave “a truthful and unrivalled picture of social and literary life and literary men, both in [Great Britain] and on the continent during the first half of his century” (DNB). Although Robinson had initially intended to sift through his writings himself, the task was left to Sadler, who carefully produced these brief but intelligently edited volumes. With a separate title page in each of the six volumes and errata slip. The pagination of this six-volume work is for three volumes as this, the first edition, was originally published in three volumes. Pencil owner inscription.

Fine condition.