Queen Mab.

W. Clark, London., 1821. Second (unauthorised) edition. The first edition, of which were there were approximately 250 copies, was privately printed by the author in 1813. The first regularly published edition did not appear until 1822, after Shelley's death, under the imprint of the radical publisher, Richard Carlile. Carlile had wanted to publish the poem in the first place, but had been refused permission by Shelley, his reason for doing so being that he did not want to be represented to the wider public by an immature work. Carlile's former employee, William Clark, was rather less scrupulous and both he and another piratical publisher, William Benbow, brought out editions in London and New York respectively. In his haste to take advantage of the poem's notoriety, Clark printed the poem in various states, and always without its secondary title A Philosophical Poem: With Notes; also he dropped the quotations from Voltaire, Lucretius and Archimedes from the title-page. Clark's aim was strictly monetary whereas Carlile was politically motivated. Shelley sought to suppress the 1821 editions but because of a court ruling stating "that books liable to conviction for blasphemy or sedition were not entitled to legal protection" his hands were tied. The government stepped in and indicted Clark who, after a court case, spent four months in prison. Octavo. 183 pages, with the rarely included 2-page dedication poem to Harriet, Shelley's first wife, which in this copy is placed at the rear in lieu of the advertisement leaf found in the majority of copies - in some copies poem appears after the title-page. In most copies it doesn't appear at all. Original grey paper boards. Early ownership signature on front pastedown. Covers worn and defective at head and tail of spine and split at the hinges. Endpapers spotted. Good. Preserved in a slightly rubbed full leather book-form slipcase, with raised bands, gilt rules, and burgundy leather title-label and black leather author label.