M & S Rare Books

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First Appearance in Print of "The Three Bears"

 

(JUVENILE.). [SOUTHEY, ROBERT (attributed author)]. "The Three Bears,"  pp. 318-26 [in] The Doctor, &c., volume IV, of a seven volume set, the complete set present. London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green and Longman, 1837. 1st ed. With the complete set, volumes I. 12mo. Probable original full red morocco. Gilt stamped with title page motif repeated on front and back covers.  Corners bumped, some rubbing, one cover detached (not from volume IV).  A.e.g.  Text clean and crisp. $450.00

 

The set was long unattributed, but is now known to be the work of Robert Southey.  "The Three Bears" presents something of a question as to authorship, which The Osborne Collection, I, 37-38, deals with by listing an 1831 manuscript with illustrations by Eleanor Mure, as the earliest extant version, continuing:  "Both Joseph Jacobs and F.J. Harvey Darton have attributed the authorship of the story to Robert Southey, who included it in volume IV of The Doctor, published in 1837, six years after this manuscript was made."  End of comment.

Thus, while Southey (himself an anonymous author/ editor) left the question of authorship up in the air, what is no longer apparently at question is the place of first print appearance.  The Doctor, volume IV, is it.