Poetical Works of Ebenezer Elliott the Corn-Law Rhymer
Edinburgh: William Tait, 1860.
Softcover. Good. 7 x 10.25 in, pp [5], 179, with frontis portrait of the author. Wrappers chipped at the corners, with some dust soilng and foxing, dampstain to portrait leaf only (presumably occurred prior to being bound in), some dogeared corners; contents clean, binding sound. Elliott (1781-1849) was an English poet and merchant. In his youth he wrote pastoral poems, but by the early 1830s he had begun to infuse poltiics into his work "by denouncing the ‘bread tax’, the exploitation of child and adult labour, and the low wages of the working classes, and by advocating free trade. In 1830 Elliott helped to found the short-lived Sheffield Mechanics Anti-Bread Tax Society, and formed the Sheffield Anti-Corn Law Society in 1834....it was his protest verse, favourably reviewed by Thomas Carlyle, Bulwer-Lytton, the Howitts, W. J. Fox, and Geraldine Jewsbury, which bolstered his reputation as poet of the poor, even after he had accumulated substantial wealth" (DNB). This volume collects both his early worth and his Corn-Law Rhymes.
Item #18974
Price: $100.00