FIRST EDITION OF KEATS’ LAMIA, HIS LAST AND GREATEST VOLUME OF POETRY, INCLUDING THE FIRST PUBLISHED APPEARANCE OF MANY OF HIS FINEST WORKS

KEATS, John. Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems. London: Taylor and Hessey, 1820. 12mo, 20th-century full red morocco gilt, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $23,500.

First edition of Keats’ third and greatest volume of poetry, the last issued during his lifetime, beautifully bound by Bayntun, containing two of his finest poems, “Ode to a Nightingale” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn.” Includes the first printed appearance of “Hyperion,” “Ode on Melancholy,” “To Autumn,” and “Ode to Psyche,” among others.

In March 1819, following the death of his brother Tom, Keats emerged from a period of depression and began an astonishing three months of creative energy, producing "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode on a Grecian Urn," and "Ode on Melancholy," among other works. These poems, with The Eve of St. Agnes, were the best and last significant poems Keats was to produce; within months it was discovered that he had contracted tuberculosis while nursing his brother, and in the last months of his life he produced little. "By the contents of this volume Keats lives as one of the great English poets… [His] imaginative range is wide, from the pathos and grimness of 'Isabella' to the elemental majesty of 'Hyperion,' from the glowing romance color of the 'Eve of St. Agnes' to the classical enchantments of 'Lamia,' and from these to the brooding inwardness of the meditative odes… For easy and assured poetic mastery much of his work in this volume stands next in English literature to that of the great Elizabethans from whom he seems lineally descended… Almost immediately on the appearance of the volume its true value was recognized by such judges as Lamb and Shelley" (DNB). Of the 13 poems collected here, only two—"Ode to a Nightingale" and "Ode on a Grecian Urn"—appeared previously in periodicals (both anonymously). Without scarce half title and advertisements. MacGillivray 3. Grolier 100. Hayward 233. Lowndes, 1255. Early owner signature on Contents leaf.

Faint text offsetting to page 97, interior otherwise fine. A beautiful copy.