The Poetical Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper 1850

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By Sarasota Estate Auction

Jan 20, 2024

Set Reminder 2024-01-20 11:00:00 2024-01-20 11:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Day 1- Rare Books, Fine Art, Silver & Jewelry https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/sarasota-estate/day-1--rare-books-fine-art-silver-jewelry-14620
Artists to include: Jorge Blanco, Leonardo Nierman, Picasso, LeRoy Neiman, Darrell Crisp, Francois Krige, Mino Delle Site, Peter Max, Edward Povey, Sky Jones, Robert Rauschenberg, and others. There are also 7 Original Charles Schulz Drawings done by Reuben Timmins, Production Cels, over 200 lots of Important Books and Manuscripts, Sterling Silver, a Jane Kostick Geometric Wooden Sculpture, Modern Design and Furniture, Fantastic Estate Jewelry, and so much more! Sarasota Estate Auction sarasotaestateauction@gmail.com

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• Lot Description
  This book is titled "The Poetical Worlds Of Martin Farquhar Tupper, Including Proverbial Philosophy, A Thousand Lines, Hactenus, Geraldine, And Other Poems", written by Martin Tupper and published in New York by John Wiley in 1850. The book has "Tupper's Poetical Works Complete" in gilt letters on the spine, gilt decorations inside the gilt borders on the front cover, blank endpapers, it's inscribed to "Mary Louise from her true friend with all good wishes … August 20th 1851 …", with a frontis portrait of Martin F. Tupper and a facsimile signature, then a protective tissue guard, the title page, it was printed by R. Craighead on Fulton Street, with another title page after that for "Proverbial Philosophy" dated 1849, three pages of Contents for the First and Second Series of Proverbial Philosophy, with 364 pages of text and Notes that run to page 383, then another title page for A Thousand Lines, Hactenus, Geraldine, and Other Poems, which add another 257 pages of text to the book, and all the edges are gilt. Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810 - 1889) was an English poet and novelist, and one of the most widely-read English-language authors of his day with the poetry collection Proverbial Philosophy, which was a bestseller in the United Kingdom and North America for several decades. Tupper found great success in Victorian Britain at a relatively early age, with a second series of the poetry collection Proverbial Philosophy in 1842, and as one of Queen Victoria's favorite poets, he was once a serious contender for the position of Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom. However, Proverbial Philosophy eventually fell out of fashion, and its previous high status made the poetry and its author targets for satire and parody. Despite his prodigious output and ongoing efforts at self-promotion, Tupper's other works did not achieve anything close to the bestseller status of Proverbial Philosophy, and towards the end of the his own lifetime he had become obscure. Nevertheless, the style of Proverbial Philosophy, which Tupper referred to as "rhythmics" rather than poetry, had an influence on admirer Walt Whitman, who was also experimenting with free verse. Considered by later generations to be "artifacts of their time", Tupper's works have largely been forgotten, and as of 2002 had been out of print for over a century. Born in Devonshire Place, London, he received his early education at Eagle House School and Charterhouse, then attended Christ Church at Oxford, where he received a BA in 1832. He suffered from a severe stammer, which precluded him from going into the church or politics, so he studied for the law and was called to the bar in 1835, but never practiced as a barrister. He published his first important piece the same year, a collection of short poems titled "Sacra Poeses", and in 1835 a piece of blank verse titled "A Voice from the Cloister" was published anonymously. In 1838 he wrote "Geraldine", a continuation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Christobel", and in 1838 the first official version of Proverbial Philosophy came out, at a price of 7s. He wrote a second edition at 6s, and a third, which didn't sell too well, so the unsold copies were sent to America, and they didn't sell too well either. One editor (N. P. Willis) was so perplexed by the form of the book that he guessed it was written in the seventeenth century. Undeterred, Tupper wrote a second series of Proverbial Philosophy in 1841, and it was supposed to be published as a serial in Ainsworth's Magazine, but Tupper got impatient and decided to publish his new "rhythmics" as a whole in 1842. Thankfully this second series proved popular, and the title became an enormous success over the decades. In 1844 he received the Gold Medal for Science and Literature from the King of Prussia as a mark of the King's admiration for Proverbial Philosophy. In the 1850's the work was translated into several languages, including German, Swedish, Danish, Armenian, and French; by the 1860's it had sold over 200,000 copies in the United Kingdom, through forty editions, and over the course of the author's lifetime it is estimated that between one quarter and half a million copies were sold in England, and over 1.5 million in the United States, through 50 editions, but due to the lack of international copyright laws, the US market was dominated by pirated copies, and consequently, Tupper made almost no money from the work's enormous American sales. After the death of William Wordsworth in 1850, Tupper suggested he was willing to fill the now-vacant position of Poet Laureate, and it appears that his candidacy had popular support from England and America, but eventually the coveted position went to Alfred, Lord Tennyson. By the time of his return from his second American tour in 1877, Tupper had fallen into obscurity in England, and his attempts to publish a complete collection of his works failed; he approached 26 publishers and they all declined; he was short of money and forced to sell his home, so he and his family moved to a small rental property in Upper Norwood. In 1881 Tupper made a final attempt at a new printing of Proverbial Philosophy, a large illustrated quarto, but this failed to sell. Tupper had an interest in the legacy of Alfred the Great and the Anglo-Saxons, so he contributed to the short-lived magazine Anglo-Saxon (1849 to 1851), but this had overtones of racial superiority. During the American Civil War, he was not very supportive of the anti-slavery Union, and his later works demonstrate a sympathy for the Southern cause. The book measures 5 1/4 x 3 7/8 in. wide, with a somewhat loose binding by the front gutter, the pages are text are clean for the most part, with faint brown spots here and there, light fading not echoers and spine, light loss at the heel and crown, and a complete version of Proverbial Philosophy and Geraldine. You too can find out if Tupper was out of touch with the times or if it was indeed filled with blank verse so admired by Walt Whitman; only two copies are listed on the rare book web site we use, and one goes for about $230. #96 #1621
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