Marmion. A Tale of Flodden Field.

[8], 302 printed pages, plus correction page at end. Printed by Simms and McIntyre, Belfast. Simms and McIntyre Pocket edition, priced sixpence. Individually issued volume (two years later, Simms & McIntyre published, The Select Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott ; Lay of the Last Minstrel, Marmion, Lady of the Lake, and Rokeby). Page edges a little dusty. Otherwise, in unusually good condition. Original endpapers. No inscriptions. 66 x 100mm. Original publisher's pink wrappers; spine with pink title against brown decorative frame; front cover with pink and brown lettering within brown rococco frame; back cover with pink and brown publisher's advertisement within elaborate pink and brown frame. Spine with vertical wrinkles; some slight wear at head and foot of spine, edges and corners. Overall a few patches of grubbiness. The early 19th century saw numerous improvements in the printing, publishing and book-distribution processes, with the introduction of steam-powered printing presses, pulp mills, automatic type setting, and a network of railways. These innovations enabled the likes of Simms and McIntyre of Belfast, Routledge & Sons (founded in 1836) and Ward & Lock (founded in 1854) to mass-produce cheap uniform yellowback or paperback editions of existing works, and distribute and sell them across the British Isles, principally via the ubiquitous W. H. Smith & Sons newsagent found at most urban British railway stations. These paper bound volumes were offered for sale at a fraction of the historical cost of a book, and were of a smaller format, (usually 110 mm × 178 mm.), aimed at the railway traveller. Not in Bondy, nor Spielmann, nor Welsh. No OCLC number. WorldCat locates zero copies worldwide. Rare and very early mass-produced paperback in miniature. #5445