Another Textual Source Brought into the Fold

I held off submitting this essay to Gordon Pfeiffer until I knew for sure that the following book was secured. Now that it’s confirmed, the latest “source text” to enter the Mosher Collection is that of The Poetical Works of Thomas Lovell Beddoes. Edited, with a Memoir, by Edmund Gosse. Two volumes. London: J. M. Dent & Co, 1890. This is copy No. 59 of the English Edition of 125 large paper copies (another 100 were acquired by Macmillan for America). The book –actually one of two copies of the same title Mosher had in his personal library– has numerous pencil notations by Mosher in preparation for his March 1899 issue of The Bibelot devoted to Thomas Lovell Beddoes, the “belated Elizabethan who had strayed into the nineteenth century” without whose songs “Victorian letters would be so much the less splendid, so much the poorer for us, without them.” (pp. [103-104]).

Source texts are of interest beyond the mere fact that they represent the actual place where the publisher/editor garnered the text he would use in his own publication. Mosher himself cites this two volume work in a circumscribed way by indicating “the true story of Beddoes’ life and death was first made known when Mr. Gosse re-edited his works. See The Poetical Works of Thomas Lovell Beddoes edited with a Memoir by Edmund Gosse, 2 vols, Fcap 8vo, London, 1890.” Although Mosher never directly states that this is also the source of Beddoes’ lyrics he selected for his issue of The Bibelot, one might infer that it is. Now the volumes with Mosher’s bookplate and hand written notes confirms this without question. There are also notes he makes in the margins that may or may not have some bearing on The Bibelot issue. Sometimes such notes help to reveal the editorial process and, in some instances, actually indicate slight changes to the text which is brought out in the new edition (an editor’s prerogative?). The publisher read from this source, decided on using it for his own publication, gives directions, makes selections, deletes some material, reorders the text, and overall exercises his editorial control. Sometimes the book bears a referral inscription from a previous owner so we even know who to thank for bringing it to the publisher’s attention. Other times we can match a letter to a book recommended by a correspondent.

The following books were acquired at different times from different sources and represents the largest repository of Mosher’s editorialized books anywhere inside or outside this country. They are the original source texts used by Mosher for his own publications and serve as important evidence of the texts for some of the Mosher reprints. (Many other books in the collection from which Mosher took a single quote or a brief excerpt have not been listed here.) In most instances there are marginal notes in Mosher’s hand, and in many instances there are instructions to the printer. To this list we now must add the 1890 limited edition of The Poetical Works of Thomas Lovell Beddoes.

Original Source Texts

Buchanan, Robert Williams. David Gray and Other Essays. London: Sampson Low, and Son, and Marston, 1868. First edition. Source book for the text and portrait illustration in Mosher’s edition of The Story of David Gray (1900).

[Burton, Sir Richard] The Kasidah (couplets) of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi.. London: Quaritch, 1880. First edition, second issue. Small 4to;  original wrappers: back strip repaired, wrappers loose; date and publisher’s name on the title-page. Copy used for the facsimile plates and text copy of Mosher’s own editions of The Kasidah.

The Dublin Review, edited by Wilfrid Ward. Quarterly No. 286. New Series. London: Burns & Oates, July 1908. Source text for Mosher’s edition of Francis Thompson’s Shelley–An Essay with Mosher’s editorial marks.

Hamilton, Walter. The Æsthetic Movement in England. London: Reeves & Turner, 1883. 8vo, original green cloth. Text copy used for extensive quote in Mosher’s edition of Oscar Wilde’s Lecture on the English Renaissance (1905).

(Kelmscott Press) Morris, William. Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair. [Hammersmith, 1895]. 16mo, 2 vols., 1/600 copies.  Woodcut title page and border, original linen-backed boards, uncut. Copy used by Mosher to produce his own edition of Child Christopher with Mosher’s editorial marks including the assignment of new shoulder notes.

Ireland, Alexander. The Book-Lover’s Enchiridion. London [& New York: Benjamin & Bell], 1884. 12mo. This was a source book for several quotes Mosher used in his 1895, 1898, and the 1899, 1900 and 1904 catalogues, and which eventually found their way into the 1912 Amphora. Mosher’s notes inside the volume even indicate which catalogue should receive which quote.

Jones, Thomas S., Jr. The Rose-Jar. Clinton, NY: Browning, 1909. Grey boards with label. Mosher’s editorialized copy for the printer.

Lang, Andrew, trans. Aucassin and Nicolete. London: David Nutt, 1896. Second edition. This was the copy used by Mosher to produce his 1903 edition of Aucassin and Nicolete in the Vest Pocket Series. The heavily edited “Publisher’s Note” and his editorial notes throughout the little volume clearly show that Mosher used this copy to produce this first appearance of the title in the Vest Pocket Series–a bit mystifying since he could have used his own copy of Aucassin and Nicolete published in his Old World Series in 1895 which pirated the 1887 first London edition produced by David Nutt.

Mackmurdo & Horne, eds. The Century Guild Hobby Horse. Edited by A. H. Mackmurdo and H. P. Horne. Vols. I-VII; also Nos. I-III of the New Series (published by the Bodley Head) bound in one volume with original wrappers bound in. London, 1886-94. Together 8 volumes uniformly bound in boards with vellum backs. Includes the issue for April 1887. Among the literary contributors are Oscar Wilde, John A. Symons, Lionel Johnson, Christina Rossetti, and others. The illustrations include examples by Edward Burne-Jones, Gabriel Rossetti, William Strang, and other artists. Bishop collection includes vols 2-4, 6-7 and a copy of the April 1887 issue; Dartmouth owns vols. 1&5. Several texts and illustrations were taken by Mosher from The Century Guild Hobby Horse for his own publications, the most important of which is Lionel Johnson’s “Essay on Bridges” which was used by Mosher as a preface to his edition of Robert Bridges’s The Growth of Love (1894).

McCurdy, Edward. Roses of Paestum. London: George Allen, 1900. 12mo, green cloth. Mosher’s editorialized copy for the printer.

Noble, James Ashcroft. The Sonnet in England and Other Essays. London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane (Bodley Head), 1893. Source text for Mosher’s use in The Germ published by him in 1898.

Parsons, Mr. [Thomas W.] Circum Praecordia. Boston: Printed and published by Joseph George Cupples, 1892. Purple cloth, gilt top. Mosher’s editorialized copy for the printer.

Shorthouse, Joseph H. John Inglesant. 3 vols. London: Macmillan and Co., 1902. 8vo, portrait, cloth, uncut, one of 510 copies. With the Richard Le Gallienne’s  bookplate. Source text for Mosher’s selections from John Inglesant in The Bibelot.

Pater, Walter. Gaston de Latour–An Unfinished Romance. New York: Macmillan, 1901. Red cloth. Mosher’s copy for the printer’s use.

Reese, Lizette Woodworth. A Handful of Lavender. Portland, 1915. Mosher’s edited copy with a sample 1919 title page loosely laid in.

Rossetti, Dante G. Poems. London: F.S. Ellis, 1870. First edition. Original green decorated cloth, uncut. The book still retains the penciled numbering system used by Mosher when he edited a source for publication.

(Schreiner. Olive) Iron, Ralph (pseud). The Story of an African Farm. New edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1887.  Green cloth. Portions of this book were used in Mosher’s The Bibelot.

Shorthouse, Joseph H. The Little Schoolmaster Mark–A Spiritual Romance. New York: Macmillan and Co., 1883. Disbound with some editorial marks by Mosher. This was the source text for Mosher’s selections in The Bibelot.

Sidney, Sir Philip. Astrophel & Stella… Edited from the Folio of MDXCVIII by Alfred Pollard. London, 1888. Small 4to, portrait, original vellum boards, uncut, one of 1000 copies, 250 of which are for America. With Mosher’s editorial marks and changes for the printer throughout.

Smith, Alexander. Dreamthorp–A Book of Essays Written in the Country. New York, Mitchell Kennerley, 1907. Mosher’s editorialized copy for the printer.

Swinburne, Algernon C. Atalanta in Calydon: A Tragedy. A New Edition. London: Chatto & Windus, n.d. Mosher’s editorialized copy for his own publication of the same title.

Swinburne, Algernon C. Poems and Ballads [First Series]. London: Hotten, 1868. Third edition. Green cloth. Mosher’s editorialized copy for his Quarto Series Edition.

Swinburne, Algernon C. Poems and Ballads. Third Series. London: Chatto & Windus, 1902. Seventh edition. Blue cloth. Mosher’s editorialized copy for his Quarto Series edition.

Swinburne, Algernon C. Poems and Ballads. [London: Chatto & Windus]. Title page missing. Green cloth. Mosher’s editorialized copy for his Quarto Series.

Swinburne, Algernon C. Songs before Sunrise. A New Edition. London: Chatto and Windus, n.d.  [1877?]. Mosher’s edited copy used for his own reprint in the Quarto Series. This is also the source for Mosher’s reprint of “Siena” which appears in this volume and which bears Mosher’s editorial remarks for his Venetian Series publication of Siena (1910).

Swinburne, Algernon C. Tristram of Lyonesse and Other Poems. London: Chatto & Windus, 1882. Mosher’s edited copy used for his own reprint in the Quarto Series.

Swinburne, Algernon C. Under the Microscope. London, 1872. Paper covers. First edition. Copy used by Mosher for his own reprint in 1899.

Thomson, James. The City of Dreadful Night and Other Poems. London: Dobell, 1899. Blue pictorial cloth. Mosher’s editorialized copy.

Wilde, Oscar. Intentions. NY: Dodd Mead and Company, 1891. One of 600 copies of the English edition printed for America. Cover and few pages only. The actual pages Mosher’s printer followed for his own publication of Intentions (1904) no longer survive, but the unmistakable rose or pink canvas boards (and the London printer’s statement from the back of the book) have survived. Mosher’s notes and limitation instructions to the printer appear in this surviving remnant.

Wilde, Oscar. Poems by Oscar Wilde. Together with His Lecture on the English Renaissance. Paris: n.p., 1903. Limited to 250 copies. Cloth. Mosher’s edited copy of the “Lecture on the English Renaissance” for The Bibelot and for Mosher’s 1905 Miscellaneous Series edition.

I want to publicly thank Ian Schoenherr of the Delaware Bibliophiles for contacting me about this book’s availability. That was very much appreciated and had I not known about it beforehand, it could have been a critical referral, so thank you Ian. I hope to return the favor.

Philip R. Bishop
July 13, 2010


This article is Copyright © by Philip R. Bishop. Permission to reproduce the above article has been granted by Gordon Pfeiffer of the Delaware Bibliophiles and editor of that organization’s newsletter, Endpapers, in which the article appeared in the September 2010 issue. No portion of this article may be reproduced or redistributed without expressed written permission from both parties.