An autographed draft of a poem by Lord Byron sold for £64,900 ($103,035) at Bonhams London earlier today.
The autographed draft of stanza 88 of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage was written on June 14-16, 1816 - during the summer that Mary Shelley and her husband were staying with him near Geneva, Switzerland.
 The first two cantos of Child Harold were published in 1812 |
It was on this weekend Mary Shelley began writing Frankenstein, conceived following a nightmare.
The draft appears to be an early one, featuring amendments to the closing couplet, and has not been seen since 1940. It is the only draft of the third canto in private hands.
The first two cantos of Childe Harold were published in 1812.
In 1816, he retreated into exile on the continent following a media storm over his various scandalous liaisons and excesses.
In 2009, a collection of letters written by Byron were sold at Sotheby's London for £277,250 ($459,110), setting a record for any manuscript by a British romantic poet.
Also featuring in the Books, Atlases, Maps and Photographs auction was a 1647 edition of volume two of Willem and Jan Blaeu's Le Theatre du Monde, ou nouvel atlas that realised £13,750 ($21,829).
 Willem Blaeu produced the map along with his son Jan |
Willem Blaeu (1571-1638) was a Dutch cartographer appointed mapmaker to the Dutch East India Company in 1633.
First published in 1635, the atlas covers the Americas, Asia, the Middle East, Spain and Africa - and includes a folding map of Charlemagne's empire.
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