Books

Bound volume containing works by or attributed to Lord Byron from 1814 to 1819. 'Lara' is the 4th edition, L. 1814. 'Poems by Lord Byron' is the first US edition, NY, 1816. 'The Prisoner of Chillon is the first edition, L., 1816. 'Beppo' is the 6th edition, L., 1818. 'Mazeppa' is the first edition, 2nd issue, L. 1819. 'The Vampyre' is first edition, L., 1819. All bound in one volume in contemporary half leather, marbled paper boards. Light wear to the binding else near fine. 'The Prisoner of Chillon is first state with ads on page 62. 'The Poems' contain five pieces; the half title is present. This title is lightly foxed. 'Mazeppa' is first edition second state, with the imprint on the reverse of p. 71 and the printer's name on the verso of the half title. The 'Fragment', also known as 'Fragment of a Novel', is present. Byron's unfinished horror story that is one of the first in English to feature a vampire theme. 'The Vampyre' is first edition, the Sherwood, Neely third Issue. Half-title is present. The 'Extract', pp. 73-84, is present. This title has a curious bibliographic history, with first issues attributing authorship to Lord Byron, then removing Byron's name, then this issue (Viets IV), with gathering 'A' reset to 23 lines to account for the removal of a slur on Mary Godwin and Jane Clermont and with 'almost' on page 36. Earlier issues are nearly unavailable, making this essentially the earliest printing obtainable of the first book on vampires. See Viets in PBSA LXIII (1969), 83-103. So there you have it. Both Byron's and Polidori's offerings in one volume from that fateful night in Switzerland that also gave us Shelley's 'Frankenstein'.

The Vampyre was written by John William Polidori in 1819. It is considered one of the first modern vampire stories and was inspired by a story fragment written by Lord Byron during the famous 1816 gathering at the Villa Diodati, where Mary Shelley also conceived Frankenstein. Polidori's novella introduced the aristocratic vampire archetype, which influenced later vampire literature, including Bram Stoker's Dracula.