THE LIFE AND TIMES OF OLIVER GOLDSMITH by (GOLDSMITH, OLIVER). FORSTER, JOHN - 1854

London: Bradbury and Evans, 1854. Second Edition. 225 x 146 mm. (8 7/8 x 5 3/4"). Two volumes..
Pleasing navy blue half morocco over linen boards by Zaehnsdorf (stamp-signed on front flyleaf), raised bands, gilt-ruled compartments, marbled endpapers. Light wear to joints and corners, leaves with just a hint of browning at edges, otherwise a fine copy--the bindings solid and bright, and the text very clean--of another copy of the item described in the previous entry.

John Forster (1812-76) wrote for and edited periodicals before he became famous with the printing of this biography, a work he rewrote 12 times before finally submitting it for publication. As a result of his success with this book, Forster was named secretary to the commissioners of lunacy, a position more attractive than it might seem to be, as it commanded a salary sufficient to allow him to give up editing and devote the rest of his life to literature according to his own interests. Day says that, in its original form as published in 1848, the present biography is a "full and accurate study [that] is chiefly responsible for the sustained interest in the pleasant, if feckless, personality of Goldsmith.".