Milton John

1911 · ref. 35065 — London: MacMillan and Co. Limited 1911. 1911 printing. With provenance of E. Malcolm Anderson from his days at Kenyon College. One of the college's principal undergraduate honors is named for him. The E. Malcolm Anderson Cup was established in 1935 by Anderson Class of 1914 and is still awarded annually to the student judged to have done the most for Kenyon through leadership and service. Kenyon continues to present it today. 8vo in the publisher's dark green cloth the spines lettered in gilt the upper cover with gilt ruled boarder surrounding and inner frame handsomely gilt tooled with Milton's signature t.e.g. xi 625 pp. A very handsome copy the cloth bright and fresh the binding sturdy the text clean. A few pages occasionally opened roughly. College presentation in manuscript on the final blank E. Malcolm Anderson's ownership notations in two places. A FINE AND HANDSOME PRINTING. In PARADISE LOST PARADISE REGAINED and SAMSON AGONISTES Milton revived the heroic verse of Homer and Virgil to frame the tale of Satan and Paradise that has become the best-known epic poem written in English. He had difficulty in finding a publisher because of the plague of 1665 which killed many pressmen and the Great Fire of the following year which destroyed many printing houses—and those publishers who were still operating were wary of the project because of Milton's anti-Restoration sympathies. Simmons to whom he finally came drove a hard bargain and according to the agreement reached and the number of copies sold Milton was paid a total of Å15. Milton’s work survives and is revered to this day as amongst the most significant poetry and prose ever penned and additionally important at a defining moment in the development of the English language. A truly towering figure Milton remains one of the most celebrated and analyzed poets in English literature. Dryden described ‘Paradise Lost’ as ‘one of the greatest most noble and sublime poems which either this age or nation has produced’ while Blake keying in on the poem’s heretical implications described Milton as ‘a true Poet and of the Devil’s party without knowing it.’ This thorough collection includes not only ‘Paradise Lost’ and the other major works but the sonnets psalms translations and his work in Latin. MacMillan and Co., Limited hardcover