MINOR POETS OF THE CAROLINE PERIOD. Complete in Three Volumes.

Reprints. Original blue cloth lettered in gilt to spines, in dustwrappers. A very near fine set, the bindings square and firm, the contents bright clean throughout, without marks or spotting. Vols I and II a little dusty to outer lower edges of the page blocks. In the dustwrappers, lightly toned to spines and a touch rubbed to corners, Vol. I with a couple of closed tears to upper edges and folds. Altogether, a sharp presentable, and complete uniform set.

George Saintsbury's anthology of Caroline poetry (the winningly modest title belying its scale) single-handedly brought to light a number of hitherto neglected seventeenth-century poets. Poets like Edward Benlowes, Katherine Philips, John Cleveland, John Hall (and many others) are represented here, not by a handful of poems, but by complete published collections, each poet carefully introduced by the editor. First published between 1905 and 1921, the work is famous for having being owned and admired by T. S. Eliot, who frequently referred to the anthology in letters and reviews, and dedicated his short volume of essays, 'Homage to John Dryden' (1924), to Saintsbury, additionally inscribing the dedication copy in "Homage to / George Saintsbury / from his Sincere admirer / T. S. Eliot / 13.xi.24". Other notable admirers included W. H. Auden and Marianne Moore, both of whom also treated Saintsbury's 'Historical Manual of English Prosody' (1910) as a touchstone for their own experiments in prosody.