Wilberforce. A Narrative

(London: Oxford University Press, 1923, 1st edition). 8vo; original burgundy cloth; spine gilt; pp. vi + (ii) + 528, incl. index; plates with tissue guards. Corners and edges a little bumped; ownership inscription dated August 1929 on half-title, and owner's name signed on title page; some browning and light spotting to endpapers and final leaves. Good to very good condition. "This book makes no pretence of extending the bounds of historical knowledge. There is very little that is new in its materials or ideas. Its only excuse lies in the fact that, except for Leslie Stephen's admirable summary in the Dictionary of National Biography, there is nothing in modern literature to recall the memory of Wilberforce and his work to the present generation. Harford's Recollections (1865), Colquhoun's Wilberforce and his Friends (1866), and Stoughton's short Life (1880), are all out of print. The 'official' biography, by two of Wilberforce's sons, Robert and Samuel (2nd edition, 1839), is also out of print and rather difficult to read. It is not a three decker merely; it is a quinquereme, each volume stretching on the average to 400 pages; and much of it is more like a manual of devotion than a biography of one who was certainly a saint but also a statesman." .