1879 Poems and Letters by Thomas Gray, Published in London at The Chiswick Press. This is a beautiful, rare prized binding. It is bound in full calf leather, with a highly decorative spine and detailed gold gilt dentil work all around the edges. This is a larger book, it is 11” tall and 9” wide. It is filled with beautiful vignettes, lovely poetry and even some tipped in photographs!
*Thomas Gray was an 18th century English poet, letter-writer, and classical scholar at Cambridge University, being a fellow first of Peterhouse then of Pembroke College. He is widely known for his Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard,published in 1751. Gray was a self-critical writer who published only 13 poems in his lifetime, despite being very popular. He was even offered the position of Poet Laureate in 1757 after the death of Colley Cibber, though he declined. His poems primarily explore themes of mortality, the inevitability of death, melancholy, and the quiet dignity of ordinary people. Writing in the 18th century, he bridged classical styles with themes that heavily influenced the later Romantic movement.
