Letters to severall persons of honour

the surviving record of Donne's poems

The first edition of John Donne's (1572-1631) collected correspondence to 'severall persons of honour', comprising 129 letters, the majority never before published and no longer extant in the original autograph form, compiled and loosely arranged by his literary executor and son, John Donne the younger (1604-1662/3).

Donne had intended his letters to pass to his friend Henry King, the Bishop of Chichester, upon his death in 1631. However, at some later date, and perhaps by duplicitous means, the letters were acquired by Donne the younger who had been petitioning for control of his father's estate since 1637. These were published in loose order, with many letters undated, and false addresses and initials substituted for the names of his father's ordinary acquaintances. Nevertheless, the letters contain much of literary and biographical importance, and remain a vital source for Donne's life and work.

Highlights include Donne's letter to Sir Henry Goodere announcing his intention to print 'my Poems... This I mean to do forthwith; not for much publique view, but at mine own cost, a few Copies' (pp196-197), and his letter to Sir Robert Karre in April 1627, which revealed that the 'King... hath let fall his eye upon some of my Poems' (p.308).

First edition, first issue; small 4to (18.5 x 14.5 cm); engraved portrait frontispiece, bookplate to front pastedown, lacking first and final blank ff (A1 and 2S4); early 20th-century polished calf, rebacked preserving original gilt spine in 6 compartments, contrasting brown morocco title-piece, a little chipped, all edges gilt, corners and edges slightly rubbed, otherwise internally clean, very good; [6], 318pp.

ESTC R1211; Keynes 55; Pforzheimer 295.