THE HISTORY OF THE VALOROUS AND WITTY KNIGHT ERRANT DON QUIXOTE OF THE MANCHA, WRITTEN IN ENGLISH.
London: Edward Blount, 1620. 1st Edition. Hardcover. First edition in English and first translated edition. Volume 1 printed for Edward Blount, nd (second issue of first edition), engraved title in facsimile. Volume 2, 1620, the genuine engraved title and printed title. 4to, Riviere binding in full polished crimson levant, fully gilt. With the baronial bookplate of the Earl of Carysfort, Elton Hall, 1894. Both volumes have hand-printed marginalia and annotations, in the most peculiar miniature and precise form and with links in red ink among letters and words in text, which appear to be the handiwork of a Baconian conspiracist. Provenance: From the heirs of John D. Wells (1878 -1932) who, as a young reporter covering the visit of President McKinley to the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo in 1901, composed the only eye-witness account of the assassination attempt of the President that proved fatal. Wells went on to become editor of the Buffalo Courier and then Buffalo Express. According to his great-grandsons, family lore has it that Wells took up the Baconian hobby of finding "codes" in literary works sometime in his later years. Very Good. Item #013878
Price: $95,000.00