Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 109, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1911 — HIGH PRICE FOR RARE BYRON [ARTICLE]

HIGH PRICE FOR RARE BYRON

— First Edition of His “Poem* on Sev< eral Occasions” Sold for $425, Setting Record. New York.—A copy of a Lord Byron rarity, the first edition of his "Poems on Several Occasions,” published at Newark, England, In 1807, brought $425 at Anderson’s auction rooms In the sale of the library of Judge Jacob Klein, of St. Louis. It is said to be the first copy ever offered kt public auction In this country. It was owned by Col. E. G. Hibbert of England, and brought $250 In 1902 at the sale of his library at Sotheby’s. The highest price for the book is $645 for a copy sold in London in December, 1901, but ttiat contained a presentation inscription from Lord Byron and three autograph stanzas on the fly leaf. Only 105 copies of this first edition were printed, being for distribution by Lord Byron among his friends. , For the Klein copy of the first edition of Byron’s “Hours of Idleness,” published at Newark, JEngland, In 1807, $6! was paid. Other Items of Interest were: First edition of Gilbert A. A’Beckett’s “Comic History of England,’’ In the original parts, SSO; a presentation copy from the author of a first edition of Thomas Bolley Aldrich’s “Out of His Head; a Romance," sls; first edition of Matthew Arnold’s "Empedocles on Etna,” author’s presentation copy, $27.50; the original autograph manuscript of Walter Besant’s novel, “Andromeda,” 401 pages, signed and in binding, $87.50; John Major’s edition of Walton and Cotton’s “Coinpleat Angler, London, 1824, $l4O, and the “Private Journals of Aaron Burr,” S7O.