Unamed — St Stephen&Apos;S, a Poem

Edinburgh, Blackwood & Sons, 1860. Cloth. A very scarce poetical work which was originally published in Blackwood's Magazine. Blue cloth hardback with blind embossed covers, there are gilt titles on the spine. There is a half title page and title page followed by a Dedication of Lord Lyndhurst. Blackwood's Magazine was a British magazine and miscellany printed between 1817 and 1980. It was founded by the publisher William Blackwood and was originally called the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine. The first number appeared in April 1817 under the editorship of Thomas Pringle and James Cleghorn. The journal was unsuccessful and Blackwood fired Pringle and Cleghorn and relaunched the journal as Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine under his own editorship. The journal eventually adopted the shorter name and from the relaunch often referred to itself as Maga. The title page bore the image of George Buchanan, 16th century Scottish historian. For all its conservative credentials the magazine published the works of radicals of British romanticism such as Percy Bysshe Shelley and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Through Wilson the magazine was a keen supporter of William Wordsworth, parodied the Byronmania common in Europe and angered John Keats, Leigh Hunt and William Hazlitt by referring to their works as the "Cockney School of Poetry". The controversial style of the magazine got it into trouble when, in 1821, John Scott, the editor of the London Magazine, fought a duel with Jonathan Henry Christie over libellous statements in the magazine. John Scott was shot and killed. Important contributors included: George Eliot, Joseph Conrad, John Buchan, James Hogg, Charles Neaves, Thomas de Quincey, Elizabeth Clementine Stedman, and Margaret Oliphant. In the publisher's original cloth binding. Externally generally smart, with some minor wear to the extremities including bumping to the top and tail of the spine and the corners. Light fading to the spine. The rear hinge is very lightly strained but holding firm. There is a printed signature label on the front end papers of Frank N. Hepworth Internally firmly bound. Page are generally bright and clean, with a few odd spots to the first and last pages. With a couple of pencil annotations to the text, and several pages uncut. Good . Ill.: None. Good .