Author: HOLLOWAY (William):
Title: The Minor Minstrel; or, Poetical Pieces, chiefly familiar and descriptive.
Description: London: Printed for W. Suttaby..., and Darton and Harvey...; and sold by Vernor, Hood, & Share...; and L. B. Seely..., 1808. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 12mo, 160 x 92 mms., pp. vii [viii Erratum], 182, engraved frontispiece (by R. Corbould, as artist and engraver) recently rebound in library buckram, new end-papers, with shelfmark on base of spine, with autograph "Mary Capron" on the verso of the second front free end-paper. Mary Capron was the daughter of Anthony Capron (later Hollist) of Midhurst, Sussex, and she married the judge and legal writer Sir William Henry Watson (1796 - 1860) in August 1831. The Dorset poet William Holloway (1761 - 1854) published a number of works between 1789 and 1812. A website entry for him notes, "While still a young man, William Holloway left his grandmother's home and care to settle in Weymouth. He took up an apprenticeship with a local printer, eventually being put in charge of the printing shop attached to Weymouth's Circulating and Musical Library owned by the obese larger-than-life public figure of John Love. It is thought that from an early age William had already begun to write verse, though his first published work, a eulogy on the local Halsewell shipwreck disaster, did not appear until 1788, when he would have been about 37. A small book of verse under the title of The Cottager appeared the following year, these early works being published by his employer John Love" (http://dorset-ancestors.com/?p=901). One of the poems, "The Negro Friend; or, Power of Friendship in Adversity" would have had a great deal of contemporary relevance, being published during the negotiations in Parliament for the abolition of the slave trade, the act for which was passed on 25 March 1807. I have located several eBooks of this work and various reprints, but the only copies of this first edition that I have found are in the BL and Bodleian.

Keywords: poetry slavery literature


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