Lot 602: [WALSH, WILLIAM.]

A Dialogue Concerning Women, Being a Defence of the Sex. Written to Eugenia. For R. Bentley and J. Tonson, 1691

8vo, first edition, contemporary red morocco gilt, gilt borders with floral decoration at each corner of inner panel, spine gilt in compartments, marbled endpapers, some spotting and browning, cancelled ownership signature on title-page, hole to G1 (affecting three words), hinges splitting, binding sightly worn with minor loss to corners

Wing W645; Macdonald 136

William Yorke Moore, bookplate

The critic, poet and politician William Walsh (1662-1708) was a friend and adviser of Alexander Pope. In earlier times he had sent a poem to John Dryden and they too had become friends. Macdonald notes that "in the 'Postscript' to the Virgil Dryden speaks of him as 'the best Critic of our Nation'". Walsh's best-known prose work, A Dialogue concerning Women, includes a preface by Dryden.