Author: STEELE (Sir Richard):
Title: Epistolary Correspondence of Sir Richard Steele. Containing Letters to his Second Wife, Mrs. Mary Scurlock, and Her Two Daughters [volume 1]; Containing Letters to and from His Friends and Patrons [volume 2]. Now first printed from the originals, which are deposited in the British Museum. Illustrated with Literary and Historical Anecdotes By John Nichols.
Description: London, Printed by and for the Editor; And sold by J. Robson and W. Clarke..., 1787. FIRST EDITIION. 2 volumes. 12mo, 180 x 104 mms., pp. xvi, 279 [280 blank]; vii [viii blank], 279 - 518 [519 - 520 adverts], with pages xix and xx are misnumbered xv and xvi and page 279 repeated in pagination, engraved vignette portrait of Steel on half-title in volume 1, contemporary lightly speckled calf, gilt rules across spines, red leather labels; some slight wear to bindings, but generally a very good set. Rae Blanchard, in her edition of The Correspondence of Richard Steele (Clarendon Press, 1941; reprinted 1968), states that the foundation for her editor work is Nichols' text, which "contains the entire collection of Steele's notes and letters to Mrs. Steele, the originals of which Nichols purchased from the Steele family and presented to the British Museum...." The English Review, Or, An Abstract of English and Foreign Literature in its review in 1787, volume 10, concluded, "This Epistolary Correspondence is one of the few posthumous publications in which the industry of the collector has not been carried beyond the bounds of discretion. It exhibits the character of Sir Richard Steele in the most amiable and interesting points of view, as a husband, a father, a friend, and a member of society."

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