The Poetry of Home: A Poem in Three Parts.
The Poetry of Home: A Poem in Three Parts. The Poetry of Home: A Poem in Three Parts. The Poetry of Home: A Poem in Three Parts. The Poetry of Home: A Poem in Three Parts. The Poetry of Home: A Poem in Three Parts.
£1,200.00

London: William Tweedie.. 1853.

Bound with The Poetry of Childhood. London: William Tweedie. 1852.
Presentation copy, inscribed "A.S. from GB. Orate pro pittore". First edition of both titles. Small 8vo. 150x100mm. pp. 52. Poetry of Childhood. Pp. 28. Bound in at the end are four pages of publisher's advertisements which were issued with The Poetry of Home. There are three charming pencil drawings pasted onto blank leaves bound in between the text and two further drawings on blank leaves and one on a text leaf. On a blank preliminary leaf, a photograph of Barmby has been pasted in. A pencil note (by an R.T.L.Parr) at the beginning of the book explains that A.S is Ada Shepherd to whom Barmby became engaged in 1861. The note also suggests that the drawings are probably by Ada and Barmby's inscription "Orate pro pittore" (pray for the painter) would bear this out. Bound in brown panelled calf with a lavish gilt border, title stamped in gilt to upper cover. Spine with four raised bands, compartment decorated in (now largely worn off) gilt. Gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers. Corners rubbed and a little worn. Rubbing to joints and wear to spine. Internally very good. An attractive copy of two rare books bound together with pretty drawings and a touching inscription suggesting a mutual love token.
John Goodwyn Barmby (1820-1881) is said to have been the first Englishman to use the word "communist" in a piece of published writing. He was a committed Chartist, socialist and reformer. He and his first wife Catherine were both feminists and early adopters of women's suffrage. He corresponded with Engels and founded the Communist Chronicle newspaper. But he always had a spiritual side and in 1843 he and Catherine established the Communist Church. This lasted only a few years and, in any case, by the 1850s, Barmby had fallen out of love with communism. The poems in this little volume with their emphasis on the love of home, family and childhood reflect this move away from large scale reform to more everyday domestic concerns. He joined the Unitarians in 1848 and was a Minister in Wakefield until shortly before his death. It was while there that he married Ada Shepherd.