Original Stories from Real Life; with Conversations, Calculated to Regulate the Affections, and form the Mind to Truth and Goodness. A New Edition.
London: printed for J. Johnson, 1791.
12mo, xii, 177, (3,ads) pp, with 6 plates by William Blake after his own designs, each signed by Blake. Old half red morocco scuffed but sound, some browning and rubbing. The Buxton Forman copy with his large bookplate and manuscript notes in pencil. Other illegible early notes partially erased.
§ First edition to contain William Blake’s characteristic illustrations, reminiscent in iconography to his designs for his own Songs of Innocence (1789). This copy has all the plates in the third state (the only state to have every plate signed by Blake), with notable variations from the first and second states. The Buxton Forman copy initialed by him in pencil with his shelf mark. According to Bob Essick, this is the only copy known to him with the third state plates in the first edition -- they are usually found in the 1796 edition only.
This collection of didactic tales for youth, in part reinforcing the lessons of Wollstonecraft’s first book, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, proved her most popular book, going through five editions by 1800.
Windle, Bibliography of Mary Wollstonecraft, A3b. Bentley, Blake Books, 514A. Easson and Essick, vol. I, no. III. Item #126938
Price: $8,750.00