The Folio Poets: Complete Set of 9 Volumes (First Folio Society Editions)

BYRON, Lord; COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor; DONNE, John; KEATS, John; KIPLING, Rudyard; SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe; TENNYSON, Alfred Lord; WORDSWORTH, William; YEATS, W. B. The Folio Poets. London: The Folio Society, 2001–2013. 9 vols.

Large Octavo (28 × 19 cm). All nine volumes quarter-bound in leather with distinctively coloured illustrated cloth boards, each volume with matching coloured top edge and plain slipcase. Spines gilt-lettered uniformly. Wood engravings throughout each volume. Complete nine-volume set. First Folio Society Illustrated Edition of each volume. Series now discontinued; the complete set in fine condition is no longer readily assembled.

The individual volumes are:

1. KEATS, John. The Complete Poems. 2001. Quarter deep green Morocco and pictorial black cloth boards. Upper edge deep green. Green slipcase. 472 pp. Edited by John Barnard. Introduced by Andrew Motion. 76 wood engravings by Simon Brett.

2. WORDSWORTH, William. Selected Poems. 2002. Quarter brown Morocco and pictorial ochre cloth boards. Upper edge brown. Brown slipcase. 495 pp. Edited and introduced by Nicholas Roe. Engravings by Peter Reddick.

3. COLERIDGE, Samuel Taylor. Selected Poems. 2003. Quarter navy Morocco and pictorial navy cloth boards. Upper edge navy. Navy slipcase. 372 pp. Edited and introduced by Richard Holmes. Engravings by Miriam MacGregor.

4. KIPLING, Rudyard. Selected Poems. 2004. Quarter burgundy Morocco and pictorial tan cloth boards. Upper edge burgundy. Burgundy slipcase. 405 pp. Edited by Andrew Lycett. Engravings by George Tute.

5. DONNE, John. The Complete English Poems. 2005. Quarter red Morocco and pictorial cream cloth boards. Upper edge red. Red slipcase. 438 pp. Edited by A.J. Smith.  Introduction by Andrew Motion. Engravings by Jane Lydbury.                                                

6. TENNYSON, Alfred Lord. Selected Poems. 2006. Quarter green Morocco and pictorial cream cloth boards. Upper edge green. Green slipcase. 429 pp. Introduced and annotated by Ruth Padel. 36 wood engravings by Ian Stephens.

7. YEATS, W. B. Collected Poems. 2007. Quarter light brown Morocco and pictorial sienna cloth boards. Upper edge sienna. Light brown slipcase. 536 pp. Introduced by Roy Foster. 71 engravings by Harry Brockway.

8. SHELLEY, Percy Bysshe. Collected Poems. 2008. Quarter deep red Morocco and pictorial brown cloth boards. Upper edge deep red. Burgundy slipcase. 552 pp. Edited by Neville Rogers. Introduced by Richard Holmes. 65 engravings by Simon Brett.

9. BYRON, Lord. Selected Poems. 2013. Quarter orange Morocco and pictorial blue cloth boards. Upper edge orange. Blue slipcase. 400 pp. Edited by Susan J. Wolfson and Peter J. Manning. Introduced by Jonathan Bate.

The Folio Poets series was conceived as a sustained exercise in matching the physical ambitions of Folio Society production to the highest tier of the English poetic tradition. Published one volume at a time between 2001 and 2013, the series was assembled around a consistent design principle: each volume distinct in its colour from every other, each illustrated with specially commissioned wood engravings, each edited and introduced by a scholar or poet of recognised authority in the given poet's field. The result, when complete, is not only a comprehensive library of English poetry from Donne to Yeats but a coherent production object — a set that declares its unity in the uniform scale and format of the volumes, and its range in the nine distinct colours of their spines.

The editorial team assembled across the series is a roll call of major critical voices: Richard Holmes, the biographer of Coleridge and Shelley, contributing introductions to both volumes in which he has specialised authority; Roy Foster, the pre-eminent Yeats biographer, introducing the Yeats; Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate, on Keats; Ruth Padel on Tennyson; Jonathan Bate on Byron. The illustrators — Simon Brett, Peter Reddick, Miriam MacGregor, George Tute, Jane Lydbury, Ian Stephens, Harry Brockway — were each selected for sympathetic alignment with their subject. Simon Brett alone contributed to three volumes (Keats, Shelley, Byron), and his engravings across those three form a coherent visual argument about the Romantic tradition.

The series is discontinued. The Folio Society confirmed there will be no further additions to the Folio Poets, and the series is now complete at nine volumes. A complete set in fine condition with all nine matching slipcases becomes harder to assemble with each passing year.

Fine throughout. All nine volumes fine, free from imperfections. A few slipcases with very mild shelf markings only, otherwise generally fine.

Please note: This item is a nine-volume set and is very heavy. Additional postage costs will apply. Please contact us for a shipping quote before purchase.

This book is currently not on display in store. If you would like more information or to arrange a viewing, please contact: rarebooks@harryhartog.com.au

Catalogue Number: HH000612