Item #7158 The Influence of Genius, a Poem. James Brydges Willyams.
The Influence of Genius, a Poem
The Influence of Genius, a Poem

The Influence of Genius, a Poem

London: J. Hatchard, 1816. Very Good. Item #7158

London: J. Hatchard, 1816. Octavo; 174pp + 1p of errata + 1p of publisher's prospectuses. Calf with gilt outer border on front panel and blind-stamped inner border and ornaments. Rebacked in matching leather with new leather spine label, lettered in gilt. Reproduction marbled endpapers. Textblock edges ornamented in a brown abstract "marbling" pattern.

Textblock unmarred and unmarked. Previous owner's signature—"Adam Urquhart"—on title page.

Do not chide yourself for not immediately recognizing the name of James Brydges Willyams (1771-1820). He was the son of a banker in Truro, in Cornwall, where he served in the infantry before becoming a Justice of the Peace. This is his only poem.

It is safe to presume that his dispensing of justice was more influenced by genius than this moralizing bildungsroman in four books of Spenserian stanzas, illuminating the mental development of one "Albert." The poem is followed by eight pages of explanatory authorial endnotes, almost exactly prophetic of the form and tone of T.S. Eliot’s notes to “The Waste Land.” Alas.

Price: $90.00