This lot consists of poems by Oliver Goldsmith and a biography about his life. The first title is "The Poetical Works Of Oliver Goldsmith", published in London by William Pickering in 1851, and the biography is a beautiful two-volume set titled "The Life And Times Of Oliver Goldsmith" by John Forster, published in London by Bradbury and Evans in 1854. Forster (1812 - 1876) was an important English biographer and literary critic during the Victorian era who took over The Daily News after the retirement of Charles Dickens. In 1848 his admirable Life and Times of Oliver Goldsmith appeared for the first time and the revised edition appeared in 1854, which is the edition here, and he had a long friendship with Charles Dickens and wrote a biography about Dickens after Dickens died, and those two works are how Forster left his mark. Oliver Goldsmith (1728 - 1774) was a well known Irish novelist, playwright, dramatist and poet who is noted for his novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) and his play She Stoops to Conquer (1771), among others, and he is thought to have written the classic children's tale "The History of Little Goody Two-Shoes." He was born in Ireland and settled in London in 1756, he never held onto money, and he died prematurely in 1774, partly because he may have misdiagnosed a kidney infection he had. The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith is in an attractive binding bound by Bartlett in Boston and Zaehnsdorf in London, one of the top book binders in England in the 1800's. The spine has five raised bands, six compartments with a gilt title, gilt rules, elaborate gilt tooling and "1851" on the spine, double gilt rules on polished calf covers, wide gilt dentelles on marbled endpapers, a small sticker with "123" on a blank endpaper, the half title reads "The Aldine Edition Of The British Poets - The Poems Of Goldsmith", there's a frontis portrait of Goldsmith with a facsimile signature below the portrait, the title page has an anchor design on it, two pages of Contents, a two-page Advertisement, a long biography about Goldsmith by the Rev. John Mitford (vii - clxxviii), a four-page Appendix, 176 pages of poetry and text, and the top edge is gilt. The two-volume biography is titled "The Life And Times Of Oliver Goldsmith", by John Forster, Of The Inner Temple, Barrister At Law, published in London by Bradbury and Evans on Bouverie Street in 1854, and this is the Second Edition - the revised first edition - by Forster. It was dedicated to Charles Dickens by Forster in March 1848, and the two volumes are beautifully bound with five raised bands, six compartments with gilt titles and elaborate gilt tooling on the spines, exquisite covers with gilt rules and gilt decorations to spare, wide gilt dentelles with a Hoar bookplate on marbled endpapers, the title page, and all the edges are gilt. Volume I has a twenty-page Preface, twelve pages of Additional Notes And Corrections, a seven-page Table of Contents, 439 pages of text with marginalia from the printer, then an Appendix from 440 to 454, and Volume II has an eight-page Table of Contents, 493 pages of text, an Appendix from 494 to 500, and an Index that runs from 501 to page 548. The Poetical Works bound by Zaehnsdorf measures 6 3/4 x 4 1/2 in. wide, with tight bindings and clean pages and text. The Forster books are 8vo. and measure 9 x 6 in. wide, with tight bindings and clean pages and text, and light rubbing on the raised bands and on the heel and crowns of the spines, light wear at the tips, some tips are slightly turned in, slightly curled tips on a couple of pages in the second volume, a little excess strip on the bottom raised band of the second volume, the name "Milligan" in a pencilled note on the last page of the second volume, and overall a very attractive set. We don't know who bound the two-volume set, but someone had a good eye for gilt decorations on the covers. #47 #5005