James Austen Sold at Auction Prices

[AUSTEN, James (1765-1819)].The Loiterer. Oxford: Printed for the author and sold by C.S. Rann, 1789-1790.

[AUSTEN, James (1765-1819)]. The Loiterer. Oxford: Printed for the author and sold by C.S. Rann, 1789-1790. 60 parts in one volume, 8° (208 x 125 mm). Title-pages for each part. (Title-page for No. 2 mounted on a stub, Q1 with small marginal tear in corner with loss, marginal worming to a few leaves.) Contemporary calf, spine in 6 compartments with 5 raised bands gilt, red morocco gilt lettering-piece (joints starting, some light chipping and wear). Provenance: R. Ekins (signature on flyleaf). FIRST EDITION, POSSIBLY JANE AUSTEN’S FIRST APPEARANCE IN PRINT. This scarce periodical was written by James and Henry Austen while they were at Oxford. Some scholars have suggested that in issue number 9, the letter signed “Sophia Sentiment” was the work of their sister Jane when she was 14. Although Gilson does not include this work in his Bibliography, there is a strong case that the work was written by Jane Austen. According to the British Library, "critics such as Paula Byrne have noted that there are various correspondences between the letter and Jane Austen’s juvenilia. Her early, epistolary novel Love and Freindship [sic], for example, has two heroines quite as shallow as Sophia. But other critics, such as Kathryn Sutherland and Claire Tomalin, find it unlikely that Austen would have written a letter so critical of women’s reading choices. They suggest that Sophia Sentiment’s letter was probably written by one of Austen’s brothers." Even if “Sophia Sentiment” can’t be definitively linked with Jane Austen, the experience her brothers had in printing this work no doubt must have had an influence on her. Gilson suggests that it was through the publication of The Loiterer that she became acquainted with Egerton of Whitehall (who were the London distributors of this work from the fifth number on) who later published her Sense and Sensibility. See Sir Zachary Cope, “Who was Sophia Sentiment? Was she Jane Austen,” Book Collector 15 (1996) pp. 143-151, A.W. Litz, “The Loiterer: a reflection of Jane Austen’s early environment”, Review of English Studies 12 (1961) pp.251-261.