A Bibliography of the Writings in Prose and Verse of George Henry Borrow. WISE (Thomas James).

Illustrated with numerous facsimiles of title-pages and manuscripts, including two frontispieces.

Limited edition of 100 copies. 8vo. [227 x 182 x 35 mm]. [3]ff, xxii, 316, [4] pp. Bound in brown cloth, the spine lettered in gilt, plain endpapers, edges uncut. (Slight wear to the boards and spine, spine and extremities lightly bumped).

London: Printed for private circulation only by Richard Clay & Sons Ltd., 1914

Internally clean, overall a very good copy.

Original green wrapper bound in at the front with the spine loosely inserted, along with a facsimile photograph of George Borrow and cuttings from a sale record.

The most comprehensive bibliography of Borrow's works until Michael Collie and Angus M. Fraser's George Borrow: A Bibliographical Study published in 1989. Thomas James Wise (1859-1937) was a renowned bibliophile who was eventually exposed as a literary forger. In 1934 John Carter and Graham Pollard in An Enquiry into the Nature of Certain Nineteenth Century Pamphlets, exposed Wise and his accomplice Harry Buxton Forman as forging various rare first edition pamphlets from 19th century authors which solely depended on Wise's published works for their authenticity. It was discovered by 'close analysis of typographical design, and of successive methods of making paper, thus proving that the pamphlets could not have been printed at the dates given in the false imprints' (ODNB).

Stock no. ebc9012