Sonnets Mostly On Scripture Themes With a Few Other Poems by Whittet, Robert - 1900

Richmond, Virginia: Whittet and Shepperson, 1900. First Edition First Printing . Hardcover. Very Good. 8vo. 324 pages. Hardcover in grey cloth with title in gilt on front cover and spine. Bevelled edges to the binding. The binding has soiling, some scuffing and white spots. Spine is toned. There is a quart inch hole in the cloth on spine near headcap (rear hinge). Some chipping and bumping at headcap. Front and rear flyleaves/pastedowns are foxed. Text is toned, with occasional foxing. A scarce volume of poetry by this Virginia publisher from Richmond. A sound copy. Robert Whittet, Sr. (1829-1908) was born in Scotland and learned printing at an early age. He was in Virginia by the 1850s. He married Jane Aitcheson of Richmond County in 1854. In 1869 he bought a 400 acre plantation near Williamsburg, but this turned out to be a failure for him, and soon he was back in Richmond, plying his old trade. He was part of Whittet and Shepperson, which published this volume of his sonnets. Whittet was also a civic leader and a supporter of the arts and reading. In 1901 Andrew Carnegie offered $100,000 to the city of Richmond to build a public library for the town. This was approved by the City Council, but the city needed to appropriate funds to buy the property and maintain the building. Whittet led the effort to get the city to go along with this, but they would not approve the funds, and the city's public library was not built and opened until the 1920s.