J O N K E R S R A R E B O O K S
9. Poems By the Incomparable, Mrs. K.P. PHILIPS, Katherine
J.G. for Rich. Marriott, 1664. First edition. Contemporary English sheep with later mo- rocco title label lettered in gilt to the spine. Bound with the Imprimatur leaf opposite the title page and the errata leaf and blanks bound integrally as called for. Woodcut device of a wreath on titlepage and one woodcut initial. A very good copy indeed, with a little general wear and a few abrasions to the surface of the binding with a small re- pair to the lower corner of the rear board. Front endpaper partly excised, but internally fresh. A superb copy in its original state. [45466] £20,000 The sole lifetime publication of the Anglo-Welsh royalist, known to her friends and admirers as the “Matchless Orinda” and the “English Sappho”, considered among the most respected and influential English woman writers of the seventeenth century. The work was controversially pub- lished without Philips’ authorisation in January 1664 and withdrawn by the publisher the same month. “Primarily a manuscript poet, Philips (1631/2-1664) had established an extensive coterie of readers and writers among her Welsh and London contacts during the 1650s [known as the Society of Friendship]. She became widely known for her innovative use of Donnean poetics to express passionate female friendship, her occasional verses on private friends and public figures, and her moral and political acuity” (Losocco). Her formal commentary on public affairs covered the execution of Charles I, the Restoration of Charles II, and profiles of numerous female mem- bers of the royal family. Although Philips never compared herself to Sappho, other writers often did, partly because of the intimate poems addressed from Orinda to Lucasia and Rosania, the pseudo-classical names of fellow Society of Friendship members Anne Owen and Mary Aubrey.
“This volume was published without the consent of the author, and caused her so much annoy- ance that Marriott, the publisher, expressed his regret, and promised in an advertise- ment in the London ‘Intelligencer’, Jan- uary 18, 1664, to stop the sale of the book” (Grolier). PROVENANCE: William Smith (early inscription struck
through); H. Butler of Balliol College, Oxford (early in- scription). Grolier, Wither to Prior 668
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