BLANCHARD (S. Laman): — Lyric Offerings.

London: William Harrison Ainsworth..., 1828 FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 12mo, 184 x 106 mms., pp. '[iv], 94, uncut, original red boards; boards worn, spine defective, front cover detached. The author and journalist Samuel Laman Blanchard (1803 - 1845) had an inauspicious start to life, being unable to complete his university education when his father's finances deteriorated. After a few desultory excursions into literature and journalism, he decided to become an actor, but working in the provinces cured him of that and, penniless, he walked back to London. This, his first book, is dedicated to Charles Lamb. Thackeray described his appearance as being that of a mixture of Voltaire and Mendelsohn. A longish review in The Athanaeum concluded, \"Mr Blanchard must expect to be very severely handled by the critics of one school for his 'Lyrical Offerings,'and to be richly bedaubed by those of another. We have warned him, in the former part of our article, against both these dangers; and we should be very glad if the spirit in which we have criticised him, could avert the evil effects which may result from his being irritated by the first, or flattered by the second.\"