ANNOTATED BY A FUTURE PRIME MINISTER - Essays Literary and Critical.

Prime Minister Harold Wilson’s copy with critical notes in pencil, with verbal annotations, underlinings, marginal lines, asterisks, crosses and question marks, across around a third of the text. The verbal annotations range from a simple “Ha!” to lengthier commentary on the subjects under discussion. These are almost entirely focused on the introductory chapter concerning “the function of criticism” and the sections concerning the translation of Homer and Arnold’s scholarly rivalry with Francis Newman (which comprise almost half the book). Here, Wilson, clearly knowledgeable of the subject, becomes most animated, commenting with enthusiastic concern regarding the nitty-gritty of accents and literary style, and weighing in to contribute to Arnold and Newman’s heated debate.

DESCRIPTION: Publisher’s original brown cloth with floral decoration and titles in gilt to the spine. Decorative illustrated endpapers. Title page and frontispiece, bearing a quote from Francis Bacon, with decorative foliate borders. A very good copy, the binding secure with a touch of cracking to the front hinge, the boards with some minor wear to the extremities. The contents with a Wilson’s name to the front free endpaper; some light spotting to the edges of the textblock are otherwise in very good order.

ANNOTATION.

A collection of essays by the leading Victorian poet and cultural critic Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), including chapters on the nature of literary criticism, Maurice and Eugénie de Guérin, Heinrich Heine, Joubert, Marcus Aurelius, and Homer.