Description

The Works of William Shakspeare comprising his Dramatic and Poetical Works, Complete in One Volume (1854 Leather Hardcover) " The Works of William Shakspeare comprising his Dramatic and Poetical Works, Complete; Accurately Printed from the Text of the Corrected Copy left by the late George Stevens, Esq. with a Glossary and Notes, and A Memoir, by Alexander Chalmers, A.M. with Steel Illustrations. Complete in One Volume. 1854. " from title page. Rare one volume complete works of Shakespeare. Contains biographical sketch, the complete text of the 37 plays, followed by " Venus and Adonis ," " Rape of Lucrece ," the Sonnets, " The Passionate Pilgrim ," and " A Lover's Complaint ," with a rear glossary. Illus. w/ frontis. portrait + 11 additonal steel engravings by H. W. Smith, still protected with tissue guards. Large 8vo half-leather book. xii + 1027pp + 11plates. George Steevens (1736-1800) is best remembered for his 21 volume Complete works of Shakespeare with his notes compiled and published by his life-long friend Isaac Reed. The final version was published in 1813 after his death. Steevens' goal was to document all known variants of Shakespeare's works and present the most likely and best translation as the original version. Alexander Chalmers (1759—1834) was a Scottish editor and biographer best known for his General Biographical Dictionary (1812–17), a 32-volume revision of a work first published in 11 volumes (1761). Chalmers’ Glossary to Shakespeare was published in 1797. The publishing company was founded in Boston in 1845 by Mosses Dresser Phillips and Charles Sampson, but dissolved in 1859. They were influential in founding The Atlantic Monthly magazine. Half leather hardcover has brown textured cloth on boards, gold lettering on spine, gilt page-edges, but no dust jacket. Great looking example of American antebellum book craft. We received the book with damage we repaired to make this copy usable and keep pieces together. Page v was torn in half, repaired with tape. Gutters torn with text separated from covers, repaired to form a whole. Interior had front pages to torn page unattached. In spite of damage, interior was well cared for; glassine covers of lithographs still intact, no noted marks in book. Minor smudges from handling and age marks. Repaired to be a usable copy. No copyright asserted. Date 1854 on title page is assumed to be the year this copy was printed. Place of manufacture is unstated. Spelling abnormalities noted. No ISBN, LCCN nor MSR printed in book.