Don Leon; A Poem by the Late Lord Byron . . . and Forming Part of the Private Journal of His Lordship, Supposed to Have Been Entirely Destroyed by Thos. Moore . . . To Which Is Added Leon to Annabella; An Epistle from Lord Byron to Lady Byron
by [Byron, George Gordon, Lord]
- Used
- Condition
- See description
- Seller
-
Brooklyn, New York, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
London: Printed for the Booksellers, 1890. Second extant edition of Don Leon, an early English defense of homosexuality purported to be a lost poem by Lord Byron. At least partially composed after Byron's death, likely in the 1830s, a version of the poem was in print before 1853, when it is cited in Notes and Queries. No example of that first printing survives. The first extant edition is William Dugdale's London edition of 1866, printed in an unsuccessful attempt to blackmail Byron's family. This piracy, printed by Charles Carrington around 1890, is a facsimile of the Dugdale, distinguishable by the "rare editions" advertised on the verso of the jacket, which include a translation of the Satyricon spuriously attributed to Oscar Wilde. While Byron is not the author (or at least the sole author) of Don Leon, his sexual history provides the pretext for the poem's argument for tolerance of homosexuality: "Methought there must be yet some people found, / Where Cupid's wings were free, his hands unbound / Where law had no erotic statutes framed, / Nor gibbets stood to fright the unreclaimed." The rumor that Byron sodomized his pregnant wife, Annabella Milbanke, leading to the dissolution of their marriage, is duly recapped: "Ah, fatal hour, that saw my prayer succeed, / And my fond bride enact the Ganymede." The true author or authors are well-versed in early nineteenth-century parliamentary debates over the punishment of vice; as Louis Crompton notes: "The poem is in fact a rhymed pamphlet in favor of homosexual law reform that incorporates a pseudoautobiography and erotic jeux d'esprit." Speculation as to the authorship of Don Leon has included George Colman, John Cam Hobhouse, Thomas Love Peacock, William Beckford, and William Bankes. The poem would be reprinted by the Fortune Press in 1934, in a limited edition immediately suppressed for obscenity. For more on Don Leon, see Louis Crompton, "Don Leon, Byron, and Homosexual Law Reform" in Literary Visions of Homosexuality, ed. Stuart Kellogg (1983), and the critical apparatus to the Pagan Press facsimile edition (2017). OCLC locates five holdings of this Carrington piracy worldwide (British Library, Morgan, Cornell, Penn, and Minnesota), although there are almost certainly more copies miscatalogued as the 1866 edition it purports to be. A near-fine copy of a true rarity, a fascinating early effort to overturn the criminalization of homosexual acts in England by way of Byron's Romantic legacy. Octavo, measuring 7.5 x 5 inches: [4], 52, 63, [3], 17, [1]. Original plain wrappers, printed dust jacket, untrimmed. Separate title page, dated 1865, for "Leon to Annabella." Rubbing to spine ends, light edgewear to jacket.
Reviews
(Log in or Create an Account first!)
Details
- Bookseller
- Honey & Wax Booksellers (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 1003603
- Title
- Don Leon; A Poem by the Late Lord Byron . . . and Forming Part of the Private Journal of His Lordship, Supposed to Have Been Entirely Destroyed by Thos. Moore . . . To Which Is Added Leon to Annabella; An Epistle from Lord Byron to Lady Byron
- Author
- [Byron, George Gordon, Lord]
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- Printed for the Booksellers
- Place of Publication
- London
- Date Published
- 1890
- Keywords
- literature, poetry
Terms of Sale
Honey & Wax Booksellers
All Honey & Wax books are guaranteed as described, and returnable for any reason within ten days.
About the Seller
Honey & Wax Booksellers
Biblio member since 2015
Brooklyn, New York
About Honey & Wax Booksellers
Honey & Wax offers a mix of classics and surprises: rare first printings, original artwork, unexpected survivals, books with no downloadable equivalent. Founders of the Honey & Wax Book Collecting Prize. Our bookroom is open by appointment in Brooklyn, NY.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Unbound
- A book or pamphlet which does not have a covering binding, sometimes by original design, sometimes used to describe a book in...
- Spine
- The outer portion of a book which covers the actual binding. The spine usually faces outward when a book is placed on a shelf....
- Verso
- The page bound on the left side of a book, opposite to the recto page.
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- Octavo
- Another of the terms referring to page or book size, octavo refers to a standard printer's sheet folded four times, producing...
- Wrappers
- The paper covering on the outside of a paperback. Also see the entry for pictorial wraps, color illustrated coverings for...
- Rubbing
- Abrasion or wear to the surface. Usually used in reference to a book's boards or dust-jacket.
- Facsimile
- An exact copy of an original work. In books, it refers to a copy or reproduction, as accurate as possible, of an original...