8vo. vi, 376pp. With half-title, an engraved frontispiece, and seven further engraved plates by Birket Foster. Finely bound in contemporary dark green calf, richly gilt-tooled, with contrasting red morocco lettering-piece to spine. Marbled endpapers and edges. Very lightly rubbed, with light scoring to boards. Occasional light spotting.

A handsomely bound copy of a series of biographical sketches by John George Edgar (1834–1864), English miscellaneous writer, printed as a companion to his earliest published work, Boyhood of Great Men (1853). Intricately illustrated by water-colourist Myles Birket Foster (1825 – 1899), Edgar's inspirational memoirs are divided into four sections: 'Men of Action', among them Burke, Pitt, and Washington, 'Men of Letters', 'Artists', and 'Men of Science'.