BURTON'S STONE TALK AND A LETTER

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Reproduced courtesy of Roger Trimball

Detail from the purple cloth cover of the first edition (1865) of Stone Talk (Lithophonima), emblazoned in gold with the ancient Egyptian Ourobouros device. This is Burton's pseudonymous and privately printed satire  on Victorian society and shows how this man could never have been admitted to the bosom of an "establishment", upon which he poured such vitriolic scorn so effectively. JPEG Facsimiles of the original are available from me by request. There must be fewer than 100 copies of this edition in existence but a complete on-line reproduction, meticulously faithful to Burton's unconventional layout, can be seen at J.R. Books Online

March 10                              36 Manchester St My dear Dixon            A friend of mine has just been perpetrating a neat article in a small volume called Stone Talk. Can you not give him as he deserves the cut-up proper? How are you off for Nile Basins? Yours truly, Richd F. Burton

(Below) Cover of the original 1885 edition of "One Thousand Nights and a Night" - only 1,000 copies were distributed, but there are thousands of reprints by the "Burton Club"  in circulation at very reasonable cost (about $300) and these are identical in content to the original (printed with the same plates)  and, indeed, contain a bonus of many illustrations, together with  a very interesting essay concerning the reviewers of the original edition.

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