Heroic Authorial Misattribution

ENGLISH NOTES

By Quarles Quickens [Nathaniel Wheeler Coffin]

1920

Limited critical edition of this pseudonymous 1842 response to Charles Dickens, here attributed to Poe by Dickens collector Joseph Jackson but later reclassified as the work of poet Nathaniel Wheeler Coffin.

Near fine.

Price: $200.00

ENGLISH NOTES

"I think I should explain that in assigning the authorship of 'English Notes' to Poe, I have done so on my own authority." – Jackson

In 1842, Charles Dickens voyaged to the United States, in part to make money, and in part to convince US publishers to stop pirating his books (and hence to make more money). After a relatively unsuccessful visit, Dickens published AMERICAN NOTES later that year, which said Americans did not take well. Jackson has reprinted here one anonymous response to AMERICAN NOTES in a lavish format on the (incorrect) judgment that it was written by Poe. A beautiful book, a passionate argument, an unfortunate mistake.

Read more: W.N.C. Carlton, "The Authorship of English Notes by Quarles Quickens Reviewed."

The Object

First edition thus. New York: Lewis M. Thompson, 1920. Full title: English notes: a rare and unknown work being a reply to Charles Dickens's "American Notes." With critical comments by Joseph Jackson and George H. Sargent and two portraits. 8.5'' x 5.5''. Contemporary three-quarter white morocco with red cloth. Spine stamped in gilt. Marbled endpapers. "Issue for disposal limited to one hundred copies." 182 pages. Illustrated with two plates: a frontispiece portrait of Poe engraved after a portrait by A.C. Smith and a reproduction of an Aubrey Beardsley drawing. Only very light wear to boards.

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