Keats's Letters - Hidden Surprise!

 

Last night I was listening to a talk by Malcolm Guite as he talked about how he became a poet. He recalled when he was young, visiting John Keats's house in Hampstead, London, his imagination was awakened to that fact that he could be a poet when he read the poem "Ode to a Nightingale" which was written on the wall of the house where he lived, and wrote his poetry. Something awakened in him as he read those beautiful lines - 

'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,

         But being too happy in thine happiness,—

                That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees

                        In some melodious plot

         Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,

                Singest of summer in full-throated ease.

As I was listening I suddenly remembered I had a book of Keats's letters that I had purchased in the UK last year that I had not read yet, so I jumped up and pulled it off my shelf, set to dive in to read this charming little pocket-sized book (my favourite kind). I picked up this book in a charity shop for £2.49, which is a reprint from 1923. When I flipped through the book, I realized that the pages were sticking together at the ends, because the pages of this book were uncut!

The method that was used to print books in those days involved full sheets printed, folded, and bound into a book. This meant that if you bought a new book, you had to cut the pages so you could actually read it. This discovery for me today was like finding a hidden treasure in the sands of time. It means that I am the first person to read this book, in fact to view these pages hidden within. It is amazing to be that the book is a brand new book that is 97 years old! What an unexpected, hidden surprise! My bookish heart has delighted in such a discovery.

Excuse me while I go read this book of letters now, the first reader since it was published in 1923.