MEREDITH'S POETICAL WORKS
Described on this page are editions of Meredith's Poems (or Poetical Works) which contain Lucile and which were published by Ticknor & Fields or its successor firms (Fields, Osgood & Co., James R. Osgood Co., etc.). Records from Publishers' Trade List Annual (PTLA) and other sources are consolidated here, along with descriptions of known copies. Editions of Lucile are similarly summarized on a separate page.
[New Household Edition]. 120x195mm, 406p. Illustrated, 12mo. Red line pages.
James R. Osgood & Co.
1875:
1876: BAP O1: terra cotta cloth.
1877: S&EH: green cloth.
Houghton, Osgood & Co.
1878:
1879:
1880: S&EH: terra cotta cloth; without red line borders and edge gilding.
Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
1880: S&EH; BAP HM1
Houghton Mifflin Household Edition. 140x195mm, 404p. Cloth stamped red and gold; portrait and illustrations. 12mo. Beveled edges. Glazed brown endsheets.
1881: S&EH: cloth, tree calf; BAP HM2: green cloth; Columbia: microfilmed.
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[1900-1930?]: Fifth binding imaged above seems to date after about 1900 and may have been issued until 1930. No copies are dated.
1931 PTLA and after: no Poems offered.
Illustrated Library Edition, 34 illus, both red line and non-red line issues.
James R. Osgood & Co.
1876 PW p816: A large variety of excellent gift material can be found in Osgood's Catalogue as the new Illustrated Library Edition of Tennyson ... Owen Meredith, and "Songs of Three Countries," each in an octavo of some 400 pages or more, with 34 full-page illustrations ($5 each), The Red-Line editions of these same and other poets ($3.50 each) ...."
Houghton, Osgood & Co.
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Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
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1915: Library Edition not listed.
Shawmut Edition. Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Announced as forthcoming in Publishers' Weekly August 7, 1880; announced as "just published" October 23, 1880, "uniform with Shawmut Tennyson." Full gilt, $1.50; plain edges, $1.
1881-1882 PTLA: full gilt $1.50; plain edges $1.00.
2009 note: No copy of a Lucile with a "Shawmut Edition" title page has yet been recorded, but OCLC records four copies of the the Shawmut Edition of Tennyson's Works -- held by Carleton College, Carson-Newman College, The University of New Hampshire, and Virginia Union University. Bill Ross at New Hampshire has kindly provided scans of the New Hampshire copy which confirm that the binding design is precisely that of the "New Revised edition" imaged below. For whatever reason, Hougton Mifflin must have changed the edition name rather promptly. The other three copies have been rebound (and thanks to Roger Paas, Al Lang, and Selicia Gregory Allen for confirming this for me). A Shawmut Meredith is of some additional interest in that Walt Whitman, writing in 1881 to James R. Osgood about an edition of his work that Osgood was preparing, remarks that he would like the finished book to look "in size, thickness, general appearance &c closely like Houghton & Mifflin's 1880 edition of Owen Meredith's Poems, only better paper and print. . . ." Almost certainly, the edition Whitman had in mind was the Shawmut (which Houghton Mifflin may have re-christened on the title page from day of publication).
New Revised Edition, 406p. (135x200mm). [on title page; not listed with this description in PTLA; = Shawmut?]
Houghton, Mifflin & Co. 133x197mm, 406p. Title page: New Revised Edition, with frontispiece portrait and numerous illustrations (scattered through double-column text). Cloth stamped black and gold (panel stamp of MEREDITH with triangles in gold pointing up and down from its center), edges beveled, aeg. Cream endpapers.
1881: E&SH; BAP HM4; Cornell; Columbia: microfilmed.
1882: E&SH: blue cloth
Related Meredith titles:
Cabinet Edition, 16mo, 2 vols. (105x120mm). 1866-1871 American Catalog. 2 vols. 16mo. cl., $4, 1868.
Ticknor & Fields. Poems in two volumes (volume 1: The Wanderer and Tannhauser; volume 2: Clytemnestra and National Songs of Servia). Uniform with cabinet edition, gold cartouche on top board, date 1865. BAP; S&EH.
James R. Osgood & Co. 105x170mm. Cabinet Edition, 2 vols., priced $4.00, in 1874 Fables in Song. 1876 American Catalogue: Poems. (Cabinet ed.) 2 v. 16o. $3; hf.cf. $6; mor., $8.
1872. ----. Green cloth stamped.. Teg. S&EH.
1873-1875 PTLA: 2 vols, 16mo. [cloth] $4.00; antique morocco $7.00; half calf $5.00.
1876 PTLA: 2 vols, 16mo. [cloth] $4.00; antique morocco $8.00; half calf $6.00.
1877 PTLA: 2 vols, 16mo. [cloth] $3.00; antique morocco $5.00; half calf $4.00.
Houghton, Osgood & Co.
1878-1879 PTLA: 2 vols, 16mo. [cloth] $3.00; half calf $6.00; morocco $8.00.
Houghton Mifflin & Co.
1880-1882 PTLA: 2 vols. 16mo. [cloth] $3.00, half calf $6.00; morocco $8.00.
1883 PTLA: 2 vols. 16mo. [cloth] $3.00
Blue & Gold, 32mo, 2 vols. (85x145mm). 2 vols., priced $3.00; 1876 American Catalogue: Poems. (Blue and gold ed.) 2 v. 32o $2.50; hf.cf., $5; mor., $6.
James R. Osgood
1873-1875 PTLA: 2 vols, 32mo. [cloth] $3.00; antique morocco $9.00; half calf $6.50.
1876-1877 PTLA: 2 vols, 32mo. [cloth] $3.00; antique morocco $6.00; half calf $5.00.
Houghton Osgood & Co.
1878-1879 PTLA: 2 vols, 32mo. [cloth] $2.50; half calf $5.00; morocco $6.00.
1880. E&SH.
Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
1880-1881 PTLA: 2 vols. 32mo. [Cloth] $2.50; half calf $5.00; morocco $6.00.
New Poems by Owen Meredith. Fields, Osgood & Co. 2 vols. 105x170mm, vol 1: "Chronicles and Characters," 507p, vol 2: "Chronicles and Characters / Orval and Other Poems," 518p. Verso titlepage: Author's Edition. Blind rules around edges, cartouche of embellished ovals-at-right-angles (from the CABINET editions) reads "New Poems 1868." Top edge gilt. Brown glazed endsheets.
----, 1869. Green cloth. S&EH.
James R. Osgood & Co. 1877 PTLA: New Poems ("Chronicles and Characters"), Blue & Gold Edition, 2 vols., priced at $3.00, Cabinet Edition, 2 vols., $4.00, in 1874 Fables in Song. (Does not contain Lucile).
Last revised: 23 March 2011