8vo (203 x 133 mm). Half-title. (Lacking 4pp. advertisements, a few tiny spots.) 19th-century polished calf gilt (rebacked preserving original gilt lettering-pieces). Provenance: Alfred Nathan (gilt morocco book label); Gerda Lissner (gilt morocco book label).

FIRST EDITION, containing the first printings of three of Coleridge's most celebrated poems. Coleridge began writing "Christabel" as early as 1803. "Kubla Khan," which Coleridge composed one night after he experienced an opium-influenced dream in 1797, could not be completed according to his original plan; while writing, Coleridge was interrupted by "a person from Porlock," and the interruption caused him to forget the lines. He would read the poem periodically to Wordsworth, Lord Byron, and other friends, and in April 1816, Byron persuaded him to publish the visionary Kubla Khan and Christabel. Ashley I, p.204; Grolier English 70; Hayward 207; Tinker 693; Wise 32.