Library Edition of the British Poets

The Library Edition of the British Poets was the title given to a 48-volume edition of the works of British poets, published between 1853 and 1860 by James Nichol of Edinburgh, edited, with lives of the authors, critical dissertations and explanatory notes, by the Rev. George Gilfillan. All the poets included were dead by the date of publication, and nearly all were born before 1770. The English Romantic poets were thus omitted from the collection.

Publication took place in issues of six volumes, each issue costing one guinea by subscription, as follows.

* 1853-1854: "Milton's Poetical Works" (2 volumes): "Thomson's Poetical Works": "The Poetical Works of George Herbert": "Young's Night Thoughts": "The Poetical Works of Goldsmith, Collins, and T. Warton"
* 1854: "The Poetical Works of William Cowper" (2 volumes) : "The Poetical Works of Samuel Butler" (2 volumes): "The Poetical Works of William Shenstone": "The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer
* 1855: "The Poetical Works of John Dryden" (2 volumes): "The Poetical Works of William Lisle Bowles" (2 volumes): "The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill": "The Poetical Works of Johnson, Parnell, Gray, and Smollett
* 1856: "The Poetical Works of Robert Burns" (2 volumes): "The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope" (2 volumes): "The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White and James Grahame": "The Poetical Works of William Shakspeare and the Earl of Surrey"
* 1857: "The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott" (3 volumes): "The Poetical Works of Mark Akenside": "The Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham": "The Poetical Works of Richard Crashaw and Quarles' Emblems"
* 1858: "Reliques of Ancient English Poetry by Thomas Percy" (3 volumes): "The Poetical Works of Matthew Prior": "The Poetical Works of Sir Thomas Wyatt": "The Poetical Works of Armstrong, Dyer, and Green"
* 1859: "The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser" (5 volumes): "The Poetical Works of Joseph Addison; Gay's Fables; Somerville's Chase
* 1860: "Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets" (3 volumes): "The Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, by Thomas Tyrwhitt" (3 volumes)

External links

*