Bohn, Henry G.
£320
Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts
Auction: 10 September 2014 at 12:00 BST
Description
A collection of 8vo, blind stamped cloth volumes issued by Henry G. Bohn, comprising 10 volumes of Bohn's Scientific Library bound in red cloth, including Humboldt, Alexander Von Cosmos, 1848-58. 5 volumes; Ennemoser, Joseph The history of magic, 1854. 2 volumes; Richardson, G.F. An introduction to geology, 1851; Bohn's Illustrated Library, comprising 13 volumes, 10 in olive green cloth and 3 in red cloth, including Eaton, Charlotte A. Rome in the 19th century, 1852; Cruikshank, George Three courses and a desert, 1850; Holbein, Hans The dance of death, 1858; Bohn's Antiquarian Library, comprising 19 volumes in blue cloth, including Keightley, Thomas The fairy mythology, 1850; Brand, John Popular antiquities of Great Britain, 1849, 3 volumes; Wright, Thomas Early travels in Palestine, 1848; Bohn's Extra Volumes, comprising 6 volumes in brown cloth, including Rabelais, Francois Works translated by Sir Thomas Urquhart, 1849, 2 volumes; Bohn's Classical Library, comprising 32 volumes in dark blue cloth, including Aeschylus Tragedies translated by T.A. Buckley, 1849; Lucretius Carus, Titus The nature of things tr. Rev. John Selby Watson, 1851; Homer Iliad [Odyssey] tr. T. A. Buckley, 1851, 2 volumes; Ovid Metamorphoses translated by H. T. Riley, 1857; Bohn's Philological Library, comprising 1 volume in blue cloth, Wheeler, W.A. Dictionary of the noted names of fiction, 1866; Bohn's Standard Library, comprising 7 volumes in dark green cloth, including Cellini, Benvenuto Memoires translated by T. Roscoe, 1847 (88)
Footnote
Note: Note: Bohn's "Standard Library was soon followed by the Scientific and the Antiquarian (1847), Classical (1848), Illustrated (1849), Shilling (1850), Ecclesiastical (1851), Philological (1852), and British Classics (1853) series, together with further Collegiate, Historical, and Uniform series-over 600 volumes in all. The libraries represented one of the boldest and most successful experiments in publishing serious works at low prices-initially the Standard Library retailed at 3s. 6d. per volume, while later additions were priced at 5s. The libraries were successful largely because of Bohn's personal commitment to the project. He was a practical and shrewd man in business, an energetic worker, and tireless promoter of his libraries. He wrote, edited, translated, and indexed works he believed would enhance the series and selected the best of his remaindered copyrights for the purpose. The Gentleman's Magazine commented that these cheap editions 'established the habit in middle-class life, of purchasing books instead of obtaining them from a library' (GM, 5th ser., 257, 1884, 413), and Ralph Waldo Emerson said that Bohn had done 'as much for literature as railroads have done for internal intercourse' (Mumby, 400)." Oxford DNB