Ravenna: recited in the Theatre, Oxford, June 26, 1878 by Wilde Oscar - 2009-07-17

Oxford: Thos. Shrimpton and Son, 1878. First Edition. Sewn binding. Very good +. Octavo, 16pp. First and only issue, with the Oxford crest on the front wrapper and title page (there were pirated editions that lacked these). A nice, sound copy, internally lovely, with the original grey-green wrappers expertly backed onto sympathetic archival paper. Overall very good or better. A fragile publication, and among the most elusive of Wilde volumes. The Newdigate Prize, awarded since 1806, is given to the best composition in English verse by an undergraduate student at Oxford. A strong effort right out of the gate from the short-lived but highly influential Anglo-Irish writer. Mason 301.

Oxford: Thos. Shrimpton and Son,, 1878. Attractively bound copy of Wilde's first independent publication First edition of Wilde's first independent publication, an attractively bound copy preserving the original wrappers, and with the bookplate to the front pastedown of the eccentric sportsman and artist William Eden (1849-1915), father of future Prime Minister Anthony Eden, and who, like Wilde, had a dispute with the artist James McNeill Whistler. The inspiration for Wilde's prize-winning poem came on a "vacation ramble" to Italy in 1877 with the precentor and junior dean of Trinity College, Dublin, William Mahaffy. According to the review published the next day in The Oxford and Cambridge Undergraduate's Journal Wilde's recitation of it at Oxford was "listened to with rapt attention and frequently applauded" (Ellman, p. 94). Eden excelled at a range of sports from boxing and horse riding to shooting, "the epitome of the sporting squire" (ODNB), a member of several clubs and well known in London… Read More

Oxford: Thomas Shrimpton and Son, 1878. First Edition. First edition. (Oxford crest present on front wrap and title page; a later pirate edition lacked these. Mason 301). 16 pp. Bound in publisher's gray-green printed wrappers. An unsophisticated copy, Very Good with toning and and few small edge chips to fragile wrappers. Contents bright and in great shape. The author's first book.