Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, by Robert Burns.

BURNS, Robert. [Herman Melville].

$4,000.00

Item Number: 144818

Newport, Rhode Island: Printed for John Brown & Co, 1870.

American reprint of the Kilmarnock edition of the Poems of Robert Burns. Octavo, original publisher’s quarter vellum over paper-covered boards. Presentation copy, inscribed on the pastedown, “Presented by Herman Melville to J.G. Hoadley Sept. 1870. -” Melville loved books as objects and frequently gave them to family members as Christmas or other gifts.  The presentation inscription itself is likely in the hand of Melville’s wife. In good condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. From the library of American bookseller and renowned Melville collector William S. Reese with his bookplate to the clamshell box.

Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is in a "light Scots dialect" of English, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest. He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish diaspora around the world.