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Austen-Leigh, J. E.
A Memoir of Jane Austen.
Publisher: Richard Bentley, London;
Date of Publication: 1870
Stock Code: 12917
First Edition, octavo, pp., [viii] 236. With a steel and stipple-engraved portrait frontispiece of Austen, three wood-engraved plates, a lithographed facsimile of Jane Austen's handwriting and decorative headpieces and ornamental capitals. Bound in publisher’s forest green bevelled cloth with gilt titles to spine and decorative gilt motif to upper board, black-stamped decorative borders. Capably re-cased with new pale brown end-papers. Minor foxing to frontispiece, some bruises and nicks to spine and corners, boards slightly scuffed. Minor water stain to plate facing page 31, plate facing page 36 has been remounted. An attractive copy. The first printing of the first biography of the novelist, ostensibly written by her nephew James Edward Austen-Leigh (1798–1894) and published on 16 December 1869 (though dated 1870) in an edition of approximately 1,000 copies. The work was in fact a collaborative effort on behalf of Austen-Leigh, Austen’s neices and their cousin Cassy Esten, who all knew Austen as children. This important biography had an immediate effect on the public's awareness of Austen works, generating fresh interest in her novels. It was the standard biographical reference source on Austen for over 50 years and remains an invaluable primary source on the author’s life, £750.00