Jane Austen; A Bibliography (Inscribed Twice by the Sir Geoffrey Keynes to His Friend, John Fulton)
London: Printed for the Nonesuch Press, 1931. Limited Edition. Small Octavo. Item #029070
Limited to 875 copies. The present copy is # 68 Inscribed twice by the Author to his friend, John Fulton with Fulton's bookplate. xxv, 289 pages [4] leaves of plates. One of the great association copies by Sir Geoffrey Keynes whose expertise in medicine with advances in blood transfusion during World War I and his association with Osler, Cushing, and John Fulton was accompanied with his passion for rare literary works and his own production of major bibliographies. In his autobiography Gates of Memory (p. 179-180), he tells of how he acquired a remarkable condition of association copies of Jane Austen's works. "Soon afterwards, in 1929, my Bibliography of Jane Austen was published by the Nonesuch Press. Francis Meynell designed the format and binding so that it closely resembled any one of the first editions of the novels in their original boards." He notes that in the intervening years his Jane Austen bibliography was pirated four times by American publishers, through persistence he eventually recovered royalties (Gates of Memory, p. 309). It was Keynes close friend, John Fulton, that had helped him to recover William Blake's copy of Bacon's Essays. Errata leaf reads: "John Fulton, with apologies for malpractice from Geoffrey Keyens". On an intervening leaf, he has again signed: "John Fulton, from Geoffrey Keynes, 1929". Laid in is a card to Dr. John Fulton while he was at Oxford from Keynes where he notes "I discovered a hush hush cache at the N--ch which I coaxed out of them" (This copy confirmed as withdrawn from Yale University) Bound in 1/4 paper over blue paper covered boards, paper spine label lettered in black, spine call numbers in gilt, extra spine label laid in at rear. A very nice copy.
Price: $1,350.00