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Swinburne, Algernon Charles.
Poems and Ballads.
Publisher: John Camden Hotten, Piccadilly, London;
Date of Publication: 1866
Stock Code: 15391
First edition, second issue. Foolscap octavo, pp., vi, 344. Wanting the half-title, otherwise complete. Contemporary crushed burgundy morocco binding by Morrell for Bickers and Son; spine on five raised bands; titled in gilt to spine; gilt dentelles; gilt and scarlet brocade end-papers. Corners rubbed, with a touch of further rubbing to joints and to spine; binding otherwise strong and square. Occasional light spots to contents, particularly to first and final few leaves, but generally a clean copy. The second issue of Swinburne’s controversial poems on sex and the taboo. The works within discuss lesbianism, sadomasochism, the Marquis de Sade, and femme fatales. The collection earned Swinburne notoriety, so much so that the manager of the original publisher, James Bertrand Payne of Moxon & Co., was ‘rendered nervous by the unreasoning and hysterical criticism flung at the book, and the storm of opposition roused by certain of its contents (Wise, p. 121). The firm passed the book, and the future right to all of Swinburne’s works to the swashbuckling piratical publisher John Camden Hotten, who was no stranger to the risqué. The result was this second issue, with a new cancel title-page, a hodge-podge of sheets retaining Moxon’s errors, and new sheets printed in facsimile with corrections by Hotten. A handsome copy of a scarce book. £100.00