Israfel: Letters, Visions and Poems.
London: E. W. Allen, 1886. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 114pp White papered boards with bevelled edges. Author and title in red within rules on front cover. Title has been neatly added in hand to the normally-blank spine. Dr. R. A. Gilbert describes "Israfel" thus: "Israfel consists of four prose letters, set around original and quoted verse, five poetice 'visions' and five other poems. The remainder of the text contains six poems, one of which, 'The Sea Fowl', first appeared in Aunt Judy's Magazine for 1884." Technically this is Waite's third published volume, however no copies are known to exist of his first book "An Ode to Astronomy and Other Poems" (1877) which was apparently "a minute quarto pamphlet of verse" so in practical terms this is his second published work, preceeded by "A Lyric of Fairyland" (1879). [Gilbert A3] Boards a little darkened, corners very lightly bruised. Bookplate on front-pastedown which also has a neat, postage-stamp sized erasure, of what was presumably once a bookseller's details. A clean, VG+ copy of a scarce volume. Item #73032
Price: $750.00