nelson horatio nicolas sir nicholas (1 Ergebnisse)

First and only contemporary edition of "the standard work of reference for Nelson's correspondence and is the principal source from which his biographers have drawn (and still do draw) their material" (Cowie). In the foreword to the late 1990s reprint, Michael Nash notes that "The 'Nicolas', as it is generally known, has never been superseded". Calling on his extensive social contacts and personal reputation Nicolas (1799-1848) obtained access to numerous collections of correspondence, including "the mass of papers inherited by Nelson's niece, Lady Bridport", and "although it is at first sight simply a collection of letters, Nicolas took care to arrange his material in strict chronological order, adding extensive and very helpful footnotes where necessary to give biographical details of everyone who appears in the text, and also backing up the letters with additional documents relating to Nelsons' career. As a result it is as good as a biography" (White, pp. 185-6). Eminent naval historian J. K. Laughton described it as "the only work treating of Nelson's professional career which is to be implicitly trusted" (DNB), in the estimation of Nelson biographer Carola Oman it was "the Bible of the Nelson student", and for Oliver Warner, the 20th century's greatest Nelson scholar, it was the foundation for all serious study of Nelson and his life. In 1846 on completion, The Standard considered that "the family that shall want this book must be ungrateful to the memory of Nelson" - a sentiment that Colburn judiciously, but vainly, quoted in a puff for his never to be completed parts issue - so it is surprising that the set is so uncommon, particularly when compared to Gurwood's Wellington's dispatches, published around the same dates and far more frequently encountered. This set is in excellent unrestored contemporary condition, with an inked note verso of the front free endpaper of volume I revealing a country house provenance, "Bought by Sir Peter Pole Bt. at Edmund N Kershaw Esqre's Sale, Tidmington, March 1853". Cowie 144. Colin White (ed.) The Nelson Companion, 1995. Seven volumes, octavo (218 x 138 mm). Contemporary calf by Webb of Liverpool - stamp verso of front free endpaper volume I - red and black morocco labels, narrow flat bands with double gilt roll, compartments gilt with floral tools, double gilt ruled panel with rosette corner-tools to the boards enclosing a dotted roll in blind, floral edge roll in gilt, Nonpareil marbled edges and endpapers, turn-ins milled in blind. Portrait frontispiece of Nelson by Freeman after Abbott to volume I, 4 folding facsimile letters, 2 of them double-sided, 4 plans, 3 of them folding, in all. A little rubbed, slight discolouration and a few minor bruises to the boards, portrait somewhat browned as usual and with some offsetting, light toning else, overall very good, a handsome set.