GEORGE GORDON NOEL BYRON (1788-1824)

With the appearance of Childe Harold, his second published work, Byron attained almost overnight fame. Only 500 copies of this first edition of the first two cantos were printed, and they sold within three days. The third canto appeared in 1816 and the fourth in 1818; first editions of both are also in the University of Delaware Library collection. Tipped into this copy is the signature of John Hobhouse, to whom the fourth canto is dedicated.

Byron's fame--or notoriety--was much more than a literary event. Childe Harold, which describes the travels, experiences and reflections of a melancholy, defiant outcast, inaugurated a "romanticism" so linked to the poet that it became and remains synonymous with Byronism. This blend of passion and style exerted an enormous influence on nineteenth-century literature, society and culture.

Gift in Memory of Albert N. Raub,
President of Delaware College 1888-1896