THE PIRATE. In Three Volumes

1822. By the Author of "Waverley, Kenilworth," &c. Edinburgh: printed for Archibald Constable and Co.; and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., London, 1822. Original drab paper-covered boards and spines, with printed labels.

First Edition, published actually in December 1821. Scott had visited the Orkney and Shetland Islands in 1814, as a Northern Lighthouse Commissioner -- and there heard the tale of the "Orkney Pirate" John Gow of about a century earlier: pursued by authorities, Gow had returned to his native Orkneys and laid low for awhile, in the process courting a local lass who did not know who he really was. "THE PIRATE was an immediate success and remained one of Scott's most popular and most reprinted works throughout the nineteenth century" [Scott site]. As Todd & Bowden note, some copies were printed in Edinburgh and some in London (though the London printers are not noted as such in the volumes), due to the large numbers of advance orders for this romance; since the book was "an immediate success," a "Second Edition" came out four days later (still in December 1821), followed by a "Third Edition" two months into 1822. This set is still in the original paper-covered boards and spines (no cloth yet, in 1821) -- which was an extremely delicate binding, meant to be rebound by the initial purchaser. Condition, remarkably, is very good-plus (spine labels darkened but essentially complete, joints rubbed (expertly reinforced within?); the endpapers are original and the volumes are tight. This Scott title seldom survives in the original fragile binding, but this is such a set; most copies have been rebound. Todd & Bowden A156Aa. Provenance: all three volumes bear the inscription "Mary Temple | Decr 1821" -- verifying both the true year of publication and the fact that these three volumes have been a set since the very beginning.