Estate / Collection: The Collection of Erica Jong and Ken Burrows

BYRON, GEORGE GORDON NOEL, LORD
Don Juan, Cantos I-[XVI]. London: Thomas Davison, 1819-21 (cantos I-V) John Hunt, 1823-23-23 (cantos VI-XI) and John & H. L. Hunt 1824 (cantos XII-XVI). First editions, the first volume one of 1500 copies in quarto, with a three-page autograph letter from Lady Byron bound into the first volume. Six volumes, later full red morocco. The quarto 10 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches (24.5 x 21 cm); the smaller octavos uniformly 8 1/4 x 5 inches (18 x 10.5 cm); half-title to first volume only. Scattered foxing, mostly to the first volume, lacking the half-title in the second volume (none called for in the remaining four), and all ads. The sixth volume has the errata slip.

The publication of this work was an ambitious undertaking. Davison abandoned the quarto format of Don Juan after disappointing sales of the first volume. It has been estimated that only 1350 copies came to market and the balance were used as binder's waste. Hunt took over the printing from Davison in 1823. Byron died in 1824 before finishing the work, which is considered one of the greatest poems of the Romantics. The set is uncommon in true first editions. The letter from Lady Byron, signed "AI. NoelByron," is written from Moore Place, Esher, requests the recipient to locate an "older master, for a situation in Warwickshire--to manage a day school." Of note, given the provenance, is that Erica Jong chose a quotation from Don Juan as the epigraph for her book Fear of Flying. Wise, volume 2, p. 3; Randolph p. 69.