Juvenilia (book)

Juvenilia; or, a Collection of Poems Written between the ages of Twelve and Sixteen by J. H. L. Hunt, Late of the Grammar School of Christ's Hospital, commonly known as Juvenilia, was a collection of poems written by James Henry Leigh Hunt at a young age and published in March 1801. As an unknown author, Hunt's work was not accepted by any professional publishers, and his father Isaac Hunt instead entered into an agreement with the printer James Whiting to have the collection printed privately. The collection had over 800 subscribers, including important academics, politicians and lawyers, and even people from the United States. The critical and public response to Hunt's work was positive; by 1803 the collection had run into four volumes. The Monthly Mirror declared the collection to show "proofs of poetic genius, and literary ability", and Edmund Blunden held that the collection acted as a predictor of Hunt's later success. Hunt himself came to despise the collection as "a heap of imitations, all but absolutely worthless", but critics have argued that without this early success to bolster his confidence Hunt's later career could have been far less successful.

When Hunt was 15, he entered into a series of competitions run by the Monthly Preceptor calling for the submission of both poems and essays. Throughout 1800, Hunt submitted various works including a translation of Horace, which won first prize. In December, he came in second for an essay called "On Humanity to the Brute Creation as a Moral and Christian Duty". The Monthly Preceptor printed many of his poems, even ones not submitted for the competition. The successful publication of these works prompted his father Isaac Hunt to collect his son's childhood poetry to publish them. Since publishers would not pay the expenses to publish a book for an unknown author, Isaac Hunt decided to take subscriptions for the book to defer the cost of publication. Under an agreement with the printer James Whiting, the Hunts collected subscribers with the support of his uncle and aunt, Benjamin and Elizabeth West.

Eventually, they were able to collect over 800 subscribers to the volume. The collection was published March 1801 with the title Juvenilia; or, a Collection of Poems Written between the ages of Twelve and Sixteen by J. H. L. Hunt, Late of the Grammar School of Christ's Hospital with a subscription list that ran for more than 15 pages. The subscribers included important academics and artists, well known publishers and booksellers, and many politicians, lawyers, and government employees. The list covered people from all aspects of British life and even included many from the United States. A frontispiece by Francesco Bartollozi based on a painting by Raphael West was included in the edition based on an allegorical representation of penury from Hunt's poem "Retirement". The third edition included an engraving of Hunt's portrait by Robert Bowyer. By 1803, four editions of the volume had been published with a new set of subscriptions for each, which included many famous politicians, artists, and other well-known individuals.

...
Wikipedia