WITH 39 FOLIO WOOD-ENGRAVINGS BY GUSTAVE DORÉ: COLERIDGE’S RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER, 1876 FIRST DORÉ-ILLUSTRATED EDITION
(DORÉ, Gustave) COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1876. Large, slim folio (15 by 18-1/2 inches), original pictorial brown cloth gilt, beveled boards, all edges gilt.
First American edition, scarce first issue, of Doré’s lavishly illustrated edition of Coleridge's classic, a handsome folio volume with 39 striking full-page folio wood-engravings, title page and two large engraved vignettes by Doré, in original cloth.
"One can hardly deny that Doré is not merely one of the most popular but also one of the greatest of all illustrators… Perhaps Taine summed up Doré's appeal most eloquently: 'every imagination appeared languid in comparison with his. For energy, force, superabundance, originality, sparkle, and gloomy grandeur, I know only one equal to his—that of Tintoretto" (Ray, 327-29). "In December 1875, Doré did a set of engravings that would make Coleridge's poem famous. Few people today realize how much the popularity of that poem owed to the many Doré editions which finally made it come to life" (Malan, 131). "Doré's illustrations… immediately and marvelously invoke the eerie, magical, superstitious world which Coleridge created… Waterspouts, foundering ships, dark looming figures seem to leap from Coleridge's poetic imagination to Doré's wood blocks" (Anthony Burgess). First published in London in 1876, in an even larger format but with poor quality workmanship and an exorbitant price. The London edition was not reprinted, while Harper published nine further editions in America over the next dozen years. "The high quality and low cost of the Harper edition made it very popular" (Malan). "There were two versions of the December 1876 [printing], one dated 1876 [as this copy] and one dated 1877. Harper normally dated major books like this the year following the December in which they were issued. A survey of rare book libraries shows that the 1876 version is very rare, the great majority of copies having the 1877 date" (Malan). Malan, 261.
Interior clean and fine. Expert restoration to cloth, expert repairs to inner hinges. An extremely good copy of the scarce American first issue.