Original Source Texts for Mosher’s Own Publications

The following books were acquired at different times, but the majority (17 of 29) were purchased from the late Francis O’Brien, bookseller in Portland, Maine. A long time bookseller in the Portland area, O’Brien was asked to help move Mosher’s personal library in 1948. At the family’s request, the books were boxed and carted off to auction at Parke-Bernet Galleries in New York where they sold in May and October of that year. There were a few items which neither the auction house nor the family wanted. O’Brien intervened before their destruction, bought the small pile, and kept them together at his farm in Hiram, Maine in hopes that one day a suitable buyer would come along. In July 1989 that buyer was found: the Mosher collector and bibliographer, Philip R. Bishop, who O’Brien felt was the appropriate individual to care for the books.

In offering this material for sale, O’Brien wrote to Bishop on July 1, 1989:

Your letter came as a coincidence with my finding a carton in my barn at Hiram with some of the Mosher things I was looking for. Unfortunately the chipmunks had found it previously over the last few years and had reduced a small amount of the contents to bedding material. A few other things they chewed on, but there’s enough that is identifiable… Not a pretty lot, but of course you know that he pulled most of these apart in the first place.

From that time onward, these books have been referred to as “The Chipmunk Lot.” The volumes O’Brien saved from destruction are marked at the end of the listing with an asterisk.

The following books are original source texts used by Mosher to issue his own publications and serve as important evidence for the texts of some of Mosher’s reprints.


Buchanan, Robert Williams. David Gray and Other Essays. London: Sampson Low, and Son, and Marston, 1868. First edition. Source book for the text and portrait illustration in Mosher’s edition of The Story of David Gray(1900).

[Burton, Sir Richard] The Kasidah (couplets) of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi.. London: Quaritch, 1880. First edition, second issue. Small 4to;  original wrappers: back strip repaired, wrappers loose; date and publisher’s name on the title-page. Copy used for the facsimile plates and text copy of  Mosher’s own editions of The Kasidah.

The Dublin Review, edited by Wilfrid Ward. Quarterly No. 286. New Series. London: Burns & Oates, July 1908. Source text for Mosher’s edition of Francis Thompson’s Shelley–An Essay with Mosher’s editorial marks.*

Hamilton, Walter. The Æsthetic Movement in England. London: Reeves & Turner, 1883. 8vo, original green cloth. Text copy used for extensive quote in Mosher’s edition of Oscar Wilde’s Lecture on the English Renaissance (1905).

(Kelmscott Press) Morris, William. Child Christopher and Goldilind the Fair. [Hammersmith, 1895]. 16mo, 2 vols., 1/600 copies.  Woodcut title page and border, original linen-backed boards, uncut. Copy used by Mosher to produce his own edition of Child Christopher with Mosher’s editorial marks.

Ireland, Alexander. The Book-Lover’s Enchiridion. London [& New York: Benjamin & Bell], 1884. 12mo. This was a source book for several quotes Mosher used in his 1895, 1898, and the 1899, 1900 and 1904 catalogues, and which eventually found their way into the 1912 Amphora. Mosher’s notes inside the volume even indicate which catalogue should receive which quote.*

Jones, Thomas S., Jr. The Rose-Jar. Clinton, NY: Browning, 1909. Grey boards with label. Mosher’s editorialized copy for the printer.*

Lang, Andrew, trans. Aucassin and Nicolete. London: David Nutt, 1896. Second edition. This was the copy used by Mosher to produce his 1903 edition of Aucassin and Nicolete in the Vest Pocket Series. The heavily edited “Publisher’s Note” and his editorial notes throughout the little volume clearly show that Mosher used this copy to produce this first appearance of the title in the Vest Pocket Series–a bit mystifying since he could have used his own copy of Aucassin and Nicolete published in his Old World Series in 1895 which pirated the 1887 first London edition produced by David Nutt.

Mackmurdo & Horne, eds. The Century Guild Hobby Horse. Edited by A. H. Mackmurdo and H. P. Horne. Vols. I-VII; also Nos. I-III of the New Series (published by the Bodley Head) bound in one volume with original wrappers bound in. London, 1886-94. Together 8 volumes uniformly bound in boards with vellum backs. Includes the issue for April 1887. Among the literary contributors are Oscar Wilde, John A. Symons, Lionel Johnson, Christina Rossetti, and others. The illustrations include examples by Edward Burne-Jones, Gabriel Rossetti, William Strang, and other artists. Bishop collection includes vols 2-4, 6-7 and a copy of the April 1887 issue; Dartmouth owns vols. 1&5. Several texts and illustrations were taken by Mosher from The Century Guild Hobby Horse for his own publications.

McCurdy, Edward. Roses of Paestum. London: George Allen, 1900. 12mo, green cloth. Mosher’s editorialized copy for the printer.*

Noble, James Ashcroft. The Sonnet in England and Other Essays. London: Elkin Mathews & John Lane (Bodley Head), 1893. Source text for Mosher’s use in The Germ published by him in 1898.

Parsons, Mr. [Thomas W.] Circum Praecordia. Boston: Printed and published by Joseph George Cupples, 1892. Purple cloth, gilt top. Mosher’s editorialized copy for the printer.

Shorthouse, Joseph H. John Inglesant. 3 vols. London: Macmillan and Co., 1902. 8vo, portrait, cloth, uncut, one of 510 copies. With the Richard Le Gallienne’s  bookplate. Source text for Mosher’s selections from John Inglesant in The Bibelot.

Pater, Walter. Gaston de Latour–An Unfinished Romance. New York: Macmillan, 1901. Red cloth. Mosher’s copy for the printer’s use.*

Reese, Lizette Woodworth. A Handful of Lavender. Portland, 1915. Mosher’s edited copy with a sample 1919 title page loosely laid in.*

Rossetti, Dante G. Poems. London: F.S. Ellis, 1870. First edition. Original green decorated cloth, uncut. The book still retains the penciled numbering system used by Mosher when he edited a source for publication.

(Schreiner. Olive) Iron, Ralph (pseud). The Story of an African Farm. New edition. London: Chapman and Hall, 1887.  Green cloth. Portions of this book were used in Mosher’s The Bibelot.

Shorthouse, Joseph H. The Little Schoolmaster Mark–A Spiritual Romance. New York: Macmillan and Co., 1883. Disbound with some editorial marks by Mosher. This was the source text for Mosher’s selections in The Bibelot.*

Sidney, Sir Philip. Astrophel & Stella… Edited from the Folio of MDXCVIII by Alfred Pollard. London, 1888. Small 4to, portrait, original vellum boards, uncut, one of 1000 copies, 250 of which are for America. With Mosher’s editorial marks and changes for the printer throughout.*

Smith, Alexander. Dreamthorp–A Book of Essays Written in the Country. New York, Mitchell Kennerley, 1907. Mosher’s editorialized copy for the printer.*

Swinburne, Algernon C. Atalanta in Calydon: A Tragedy. A New Edition. London: Chatto & Windus, n.d. Mosher’s editorialized copy for his own publication.*

Swinburne, Algernon C. Poems and Ballads [First Series]. London: Hotten, 1868. Third edition. Green cloth. Mosher’s editorialized copy for his Quarto Series Edition.*

Swinburne, Algernon C. Poems and Ballads. Third Series. London: Chatto & Windus, 1902. Seventh edition. Blue cloth. Mosher’s editorialized copy for his Quarto Series edition.*

Swinburne, Algernon C. Poems and Ballads. [London: Chatto & Windus]. Title page missing. Green cloth. Mosher’s editorialized copy for his Quarto Series.*

Swinburne, Algernon C. Songs before Sunrise. A New Edition. London: Chatto and Windus, n.d.  [1877?]. Mosher’s edited copy used for his own reprint in the Quarto Series. This is also the source for Mosher’s reprint of “Siena” which appears in this volume and which bears Mosher’s editorial remarks for his Venetian Series publication of Siena (1910).*

Swinburne, Algernon C. Tristram of Lyonesse and Other Poems. London: Chatto & Windus, 1882. Mosher’s edited copy used for his own reprint in the Quarto Series.*

Swinburne, Algernon C. Under the Microscope. London, 1872. Paper covers. First edition. Copy used by Mosher for his own reprint in 1899.

Thomson, James. The City of Dreadful Night and Other Poems. London: Dobell, 1899. Blue pictorial cloth. Mosher’s editorialized copy.*

Wilde, Oscar. Intentions. NY: Dodd Mead and Company, 1891. One of 600 copies of the English edition printed for America. Cover and few pages only. The actual pages Mosher’s printer followed for his own publication of Intentions (1904) no longer survive, but the unmistakable rose or pink canvas boards (and the London printer’s statement from the back of the book) have survived. Mosher’s notes and limitation instructions to the printer appear in this surviving remnant.*

Wilde, Oscar. Poems by Oscar Wilde. Together with His Lecture on the English Renaissance. Paris: n.p., 1903. Limited to 250 copies. Cloth. Mosher’s edited copy of the “Lecture on the English Renaissance” for The Bibelot and for Mosher’s 1905 Miscellaneous Series edition.