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***SCARCE - WITH HOLLYWOOD ACTOR & OPERA BENEFACTOR PROVENANCE*** Condition: VERY GOOD 'In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure-dome decree’ - famous opening lines of Kubla Khan. Published in 1816 by John Murray in London. First edition, first printings and appearance of three beloved and important Coleridge poems: Christabel, The Pains of Sleep and the legendary Kubla Khan: A Vision.In circa 1840-1860 fine polished calf leather binding by the prestigious Rivière of London. Triple gilt fillets paneling with corner gilt tooled emblems. Spine features seven gilded bands (not raised); compartments with gilt decoration and two gilt lettered Morocco spine labels. Edges ruled in gilt. Gilt dentelle turn-ins. Top edge gilt. Blue-green endpapers. Signed by Rivière on the bottom margin of a front blank flyleaf. Collated and complete (including the often discarded half-title page) minus the four pages of publisher ads. Octavo, 8” x 5 3/8”. Preface, 64 pages. PROVENANCE: 1. I acquired this from the estate of the late Richard McKenzie (June 2, 1930 – December 1, 2023), an American character actor who is known for his role as Fred Bunker, younger brother of Archie Bunker on the hit CBS-TV sitcom series All in the Family. He also appeared in other popular shows such as Quincy, M.E., Hawaii Five-O, Matlock and In the Heat of the Night. 2. Previously in the library of Gerda Lissner (with her ex libris gilt & morocco bookplate on front pastedown). Gerda Lissner was a prominent lover of the Metropolitan Opera, a subscriber for 77 years, who established the Gerda Lissner Foundation to provide financial support to up-and-coming opera talent. 3. Ex libris Morocco bookplate of Alfred Nathan also on front pastedown. Along with Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan is one of the most beloved and famous of Romantic era poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The poem was legendarily composed one night after Coleridge experienced an opium-influenced dream after reading a work describing Shangdu, the summer capital of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China founded by Kublai Khan. Upon waking, he set about writing lines of poetry that came to him from the dream until he was interrupted by ""a person on business from Porlock"". The poem could not be completed according to its original 200–300 line plan as the interruption caused him to forget the lines. He left it unpublished and kept it for private readings for his friends until 1816 when, at the prompting of Lord Byron, it was published (in this book). CONDITION INFO: The book is in VERY GOOD antiquarian condition for being over 200-years-old and in over 150-year-old fine binding. The spine is square and the hinges and joints are firm, pages are tight. Corners are sharp. Boards are colorful with a touch of sun-lightening to the spine. The text block is impressively bright and white with some spotting, very light foxing on occasion and some smudges. A few pages have faded antique pencil pagination on the left margins near...
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