THE POETICAL WORKS OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. First American Edition (Complete): With Some Remarks on the Poetical Faculty and its Influence on Human Destiny; Embracing a Biographical and Critical Notice by G. G. Foster.

First American edition, first printing. Publisher's original salmon cloth with embossed decoration to the boards and decorative titles in gilt to the spine. Bookplate of Louis V. Ledoux (1880-1948, American poet and noted authority on Japanese prints) to the front pastedown. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with a little chipping to the head of the spine, a couple of minor splash marks and some fading to the spine. The contents with a hint of cracking to the front hinge and a minor crease to the edge of two text pages are otherwise in very good order and clean throughout. A nice example, uncommon in the original cloth.

The first American edition of Shelley's collected poetical works, based upon the first collected edition of 1839 edited by Mary Shelley. Its editor, G. G. Foster, was so attached to Mary Shelley's edition that, when Edgar Allan Poe suggested changing some of the text, Foster responded "But I have not felt at liberty to change the text sanctioned by Mrs. Shelley – whom I regard as the evangelist of her transfigured lord".