Lucretius. Tennyson, Lord Alfred. Wise, T.J.

original folded sheets (2 full and 3 half), small 4to, 27 pp on 5 folded sheets (unbound). Harry Buxton Forman s own copy of a Thomas James Wise/ Forman forgery and a rarity even without its provenance and original condition: Carter & Pollard s Enquiry records 12 copies of this pamphlet, of which 10 are in original cloth (this being the only forgery to have been issued in cloth). Kay Cradock's catalogue 242 quoted a letter from Carter responding to the American bookseller Maurice Firuski, who had evidently reported a copy in sheets with Buxton Forman's bookplate, Carter writing ".It was careless of us to have omitted a note of the existence of a copy in sheets, & this shall be rectified if we ever get to a second edition. Oddly enough Randolph Adams, of the Clements Library, wrote by the same mail that they have got Buxton Forman's other copy - if he really had two." Carter goes on to ask Firuski to check whether the bookplate is original or a xerox as "There was some funny business before the sale [of Buxton Forman's library] , as I dare say you know, and books were added that never belonged to H.B.F." 'Lucretius' is one of four Tennyson forgeries boosted by Forman and Wise at some length in 'Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century', where a copy is given a full-page illustration "From a copy of the original in the Library of Mr W.B. Slater" and described in detail since ". the editor of Mr Shepherd's Bibliography does not appear to be aware of the existence of a separate issue of 'Lucretius." Forman's account notes a copy sold in 1896 at £12, before stating "Unquestionably rare and desirable as the book is, it clearly purports to be a reprint, though the first edition in book form." Our copy - seemingly the only one surviving unbound in its sheets - appears to be that sold as Lot 861 in the Anderson Galleries 15-17 March 1920 sale of Buxton Forman's Library, listed as "the extremely rare first edition" and where it was claimed that "this edition was privately printed for the use of his friends by J. T. Fields." Bookplates of Harry Buxton Forman and Alfred L. and Sara Bernheim (their bookplate by Tiffany and Co.), on the left and right panels of a three-panel folding cloth chemise (its pull-ribbon lost), preserved in a custom-made, blue quarter-morocco slipcase. Some browning to one sheet and slight agetoning generally, otherwise Fine.