Creator
John Dryden
Title
S[i]r Martin Marr-all: or, The Feign’d Innocence. A Comedy. As it is Acted By Their Majesties Servants
Coverage
London
Publisher
Printed for Henry Herringman, and are to be sold by Francis Saunders, at the Blue Anchor in the Lower Walk of the New-Exchange
Date
1691
Description
I found this volume, the oldest in my collection, at an estate sale in Urbana, Illinois, at the home of J. Alden Nichols (1919-2014), onetime professor of European history at the University of Illinois. While at Wesleyan University in 1939 he was awarded this book by Professor James M. Osborn (1906-1976), a future Beinecke curator who had the same year joined the Grolier Club, remaining a member until his death. Called a “literary detective” in his New York Times obituary, Osborn acquired at a London book sale what turned out to be the earliest known autobiography in English, by the composer Thomas Whythorne (1528-1595).
Source
From the collection of Tad Boehmer