THE LIVES OF DR. JOHN DONNE, SIR HENRY WOTTON, MR. RICHARD HOOKER, MR. GEORGE HERBERT AND DR. ROBERT SANDERSON.With Illustrative Notes and Plates

A New Edition. Illustrated with a number of full-page engraved plates showing the handwriting of the various subjects and an engraved portrait of each of the biographies, as well as a number of illustrations throughout the text. 8vo, handsomely bound by Morrell of London in three-quarter polished, mottled calf, the joins gilt ruled, the spine with elaborate gilt decorated bands separating the compartments, compartments with gilt panels and central gilt ornaments, two compartments fully gilt and one lettered in gilt, top edge gilt. xiv, 424 pp. A fine copy, beautifully preserved.

Edizione: a very handsome copy, illustrated throughout. includes walton’s last published major work and the last of his series of “lives” which along with sanderson included dunne, hooker, herbert and wotton. walton’s notoriety as author of the compleat angler, (one of the most famous books in the language and one of the best sporting and “how to” books of all time) often overshadows the memory of these biographies, the last three of which were written when walton was quite elderly. in these works walton expresses a unique view of time as a perceptual framework and a transient state of normal life. he stresses that these important figures must be viewed within their own and personal relationship to time, and to the times in which they lived. in doing so he evolved the art of writing “lives” to something more closely relative to modern biographical scholarship then can be seen in the writings of his contemporaries.