Lot 92: KINGSLEY, Charles (1819-1875).The Novels, Poems and Life.New York, J.F. Taylor and Company, 1899.

KINGSLEY, Charles (1819-1875). The Novels, Poems and Life. New York, J.F. Taylor and Company, 1899. 14 volumes, 8° (218 x 141 mm). Illustrated with plates. Contemporary dark blue morocco elaborately gilt, covers with cream and red rose inlays at corners with gilt leafy design, spines in five compartments, gilt-lettered in two, others with gilt rose design and cream and red rose inlays, dark blue morocco turn-ins, red morocco doublures with central coat-of-arms and floral design in corners, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt, others uncut (one raised band slightly scuffed). LIMITED EDITION, number 4 of 26 copies of the “Autographed Edition”, this set with an AUTOGRAPHED LETTER SIGNED BY KINGSLEY, dated April 1849, 2pp. 8° tipped in at the beginning of volume one. “…The novel is about ¼ written, but all in my head. I could get it done by midsummer, not before.” Kingsley is probably referring to his novel Cheap Clothes and Nasty (1850).