143.12.3

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

SHELDON FUND

JULY 10, 1940

COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO,

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

PUBLISHERS' NOTE

A Household Edition of Tennyson's Poems was published by the predecesors of the present publishers in 1871, and advantage was at that time taken of Moxon's English edition with illustrations by artists, mainly of the Preaphaelite school, to include a number of these designs; to these were added lesigns by American artists who worked in much the same spirit. But that dition comprised somewhat less than half the present number of Tennyson's joems, and from time to time, as successive volumes of poems were repubished by arrangement with the English publishers, their contents were added o the Household Edition and accompanied by new designs by English and American artists.

The recent issue by the publishers of the Cambridge Edition of Tennyson's oetic and dramatic works, in which the text was very carefully determined, as induced them to reissue the Household Edition on practically the same ines as the original edition, but with entirely new plates of larger type, and with such a revision of the illustrations as was possible under the improved onditions. The text is that of the Cambridge Edition, scrupulously followed. A brief biographic sketch has been provided, and suitable indexes have been urnished. The illustrations have been selected with great care from the best lesigns made to accompany the poems by English, American, and French rtists, and have been reinforced also by portraits and representations of istoric buildings. In repeating the important series by Millais, Rossetti, La Farge, Vedder, and others, recourse has been had to early impressions, and sometimes to the original blocks, to secure clearness of line and freshless of color. The total number of illustrations has been largely increased, and the result is the most thoroughly illustrated Tennyson thus far offered to he public.

The large body of Tennyson's poetic and dramatic works, when thus inreased in bulk by so many illustrations, makes the problem of producing an greeable single volume very difficult; but by the choice of a compact page, he use of a thin opaque paper, and great care in printing, the publishers trust hey have at least come near the solution of the problem.

BOSTON: Autumn, 1899.