James, My aunt Pontypool. 3 PARTS IN 2 VOL. - 1836 FIRST AMARICAN EDITION

(James, George Payne Rainsford).
My aunt Pontypool. 3 Teile in 2 Bänden. Philadelphia, E. L. Carey &
A. Hart 1836. 8°. 4, 207 S.; 206 S. Orig.-Halbleinenbände mit
Rückenschildern.

Erste amerikanische Ausgabe; die
erste Ausgabe erschien 1835 in London bei Saunders and Otley. – „George
Payne Rainsford James was born in Hanover Square in London on August 9,
1799. His father was an American Revolutionary war veteran and
physician, and his mother died when he was a young child. At a young
age, James learned several Eastern and Western languages, among them,
Persian, French, Italian, and German, (although he failed to master
Arabic). At age thirteen, however, he told his father he had decided not
to obtain a university education and requested permission to join the
navy, to which his father replied: „You may go into the army if you’d
like; it’s the life of a dog, but the navy is a life of a damned dog,
and you shan’t try it“ (Joline 8). Thus, James joined the army and was
wounded in battle. After his release from the army, James had a series
of encounters with prominent writers which helped launch his literary
career. He had met Lord Byron as a boy, but it was his encounter with
Washington Irving during his travels through Europe that encouraged
James to write his first novel, Richelieu, in 1825. Published in 1829,
Richelieu was publicly acclaimed, particularly by Sir Walter Scott, who
after having read it „advised him to adopt literature as a profession“
(Joline 12). Only three years after finishing his first novel, he
married Frances Thomas, a daughter of a physician, with whom he had two
children. By 1830, James’s career had begun in earnest, averaging two to
three novels per year, including works such as The String of Pearls
(1832), The Gentleman of the Old School (1839), and Castleneau; or The
Ancient Regime (1841). James’s career continued to expand and blossom
when, during the final years of William IV’s reign, he was appointed
Historiographer Royal. This post not only increased James’s professional
career, leading him to write historical texts as well as novels, but it
also widened his social sphere, giving him connections with members of
the aristocracy such as the Duke of Wellington. Throughout the 1840s, he
continued his prolific career, publishing dozens of novels, and no
fewer than nine separate titles in 1847 alone. In 1850, James moved to
the United States, settling at first in New York, then in Massachusetts,
where he became active in the literary community, meeting Nathanial
Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Soon after, in 1852, he was
appointed the post as the British Consul, in Norfolk, Virginia.
Gradually, his health deteriorated, and as a result, he requested to
obtain the General Consul at Venice, in the hopes that the Mediterranean
climate would improve his health. The request granted, James moved to
Venice in 1858 where he published The Cavalier, his 91st and last
publication. On June 9, 1860, James died of an apoplectic stroke in
Venice, though the exact location of his interment is still disputed“
(Whitney Helms, University of Nebraska). - Rücken aufgehellt und berieben,
stellenweise teils stärker stockfleckig, gutes seitlich und unten
unbeschnittenes Exemplar in den Original-Verlagseinbänden.