HANDSOMELY BOUND SELECTION OF WORLD LITERATURE, LAVISHLY EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED WITH 375 FINE ENGRAVINGS

KNIGHT, Charles, editor. Half-Hours with the Best Authors. With Short Biographical and Critical Notices. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, [1880]. Six volumes. Octavo, early 20th-century three-quarter russet morocco gilt, raised bands, pale red linen boards, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, uncut. $2200.

Later American edition of this selection of excerpts from the works of the world’s great authors, extra-illustrated with 375 full-page portraits of the principals and handsomely bound.

First published in London in 1847, this representative compilation of select works and excerpts from widely recognized authors was edited by Charles Knight, himself an important 19th-century author— best known for his editions of Shakespeare. Authors include such luminaries as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Hume, Bacon, Swift, Herbert, Spenser, Goethe, Pascal, Franklin, Pope, Irving, Jefferson, Boccaccio, Keats, Smollett, Longfellow, Goldsmith, Rousseau, Burns, Locke, Scott, Milton, Dante, Donne, Hawthorne, Cervantes, Shelley, Dickens, Austen, Shakespeare, and hundreds more. This selection also includes a biographical and critical sketch of each author, and is further enhanced by the addition of 375 portraits from other sources.

Volume I rebacked with original spine laid down, some other volumes expertly recased. A handsome set.