Thomas Gray — Poems and Letters by Thomas Gray

London, Chiswick Press, 1867. Leather. A bright collection of the poems and letters of Thomas Gray. Illustrated with three photogravure plates, and numeros woodcut head-and-tailpieces. Including his letters to Mr. Walpole, Mr West, his mother, and many others. It is believed that Gray began writing his masterpiece, the Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, in the graveyard of St Giles parish church in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, in 1742. After several years of leaving it unfinished, he completed it in 1750 (see Elegy for the form). The poem was a literary sensation when published by Robert Dodsley in February 1751 (see 1751 in poetry). Its reflective, calm and stoic tone was greatly admired, and it was pirated, imitated, quoted and translated into Latin and Greek. In a morocco binding. Externally, sound, though with some marks and rubbing. Joints are cracked and tender, with some slight wear to the extremities. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are bright, and generally clean, with just some spotting to the first and last few pages. Good . Ill.: Unamed. Good .