Unpublished Poem to his Sister Fanny
Boston: The Bibliophile Society, 1909. Item #06539
A Keats Poem—From Publisher to the Great Editor
A Presentation Copy to H. Buxton Forman, Retaining His Bookplate.
KEATS, John. Unpublished Poem to his Sister Fanny. Boston: The Bibliophile Society, 1909.
Limited to 489 copies. Small quarto (8 1/2 x 6 1/2 inches; 216 x 165 mm.). [2, blank], [xii], ]16], [2, blank] pp. The last four leaves show the original manuscript. Publisher's quarter parchment over brown buckram boards, spine lettered in gilt, edges unopened. A near fine copy.
Presentation Inscription on front free endpaper: “To Mr. H. Buxton Forman, with the compliments of The Bibliophile Society.Boston, Feb. 23, 1910.” Front paste-down Signed in a contemporary hand: “Peter Steuart.”
The recipient, Harry Buxton Forman, was the foremost editor and bibliographer of John Keats - the central figure through whom Keats’s text and reputation were stabilized for modern readers. A more appropriate recipient could scarcely be imagined.
Loosely inserted is Forman’s pictorial bookplate, depicting the scholar seated at his desk amidst manuscripts and books, with references to Shelley and a bibliophilic verse on the care of books. Unusually, the plate has not been affixed, but survives separately - offering a direct and tangible link to Forman’s library while preserving the volume in its original state.
Issued by The Bibliophile Society, whose finely printed limited editions were often distributed to leading literary figures, this copy represents a deliberate and meaningful gesture: A Keats publication placed in the hands of Keats’s greatest editor
Not merely a Keats item - but one that passed directly into the hands of the man who shaped how Keats is read.
Price: $1,250.00