Tom Moore : The Irish Poet

Hamish Hamilton Ltd, London, first edition, 1977. Cloth, 8vo, 23 cm,. xiv, 281 pp, [8] pp of plates. From the blurb - "Tom Moore has been unjustly neglected. He was Byron's favourite friend and wrote the first Life. His melodics are still among the loveliest songs in the language. Sir John Betjeman has recently said that some of his lyrics are better than Byron's. Apart from this, the entry of a grocer's penniless son from Dublin into Regency society is a unique success story. Moore said of himself that he was something of a show child. Tiny - he never grew to more than five feet - he charmed all who came his way. He was contributing poetry to magazines at thirteen. In Trinity College Dublin he made a figure, and took part in debates with Robert Emmet, against whom he refused to give evidence after the Rebellion of 1798. While in Trinity he made translations of Anacreon. With these in his pocket he went to London, aged 20. Within six months he was made free of the London drawing-rooms, where he sang his own songs, accompanying himself. The Prince Regent accepted the dedication of his first poems. He laughed with Sydney Smith, listened to Macaulay, rollicked with Byron; and when Sir Walter Scott took him to the theatre in Edinburgh, the audience rose to its feet and cheered first their own hero, then the Irish one. Moore is often criticised for having agreed with John Murray, the publisher, to the burning of Byron's Memoirs, which had been given by the poet to Moore to edit after his death. Mr White's book makes clear that Moore was not either in a position to prevent the destruction or in favour of it. Top edge slightly dust-stained, otherwise Good in slightly used dustwrapper.