This three-volume set of poetry is titled "The World Of Francis Thompson", published in London by Burns & Oates in 1913 and printed in England at the Arden Press. The first two volumes are about Thompson's poems and the third one is about Thompson's prose, and they are all bound by Zaehnsdorf. The books have five raised bands, with six gilt-ruled compartments that have two black labels, gilt lettering, and gilt decorations on the spine, triple gilt-fillet borders on polished calf covers, gilt dentelles and an owner's bookplate on the front paste-down of the marbled endpapers,"Zaehnsdorf" is stamped in small letters at the bottom of the first blank endpaper, there are half-titles followed by "Third Thousand 1913" on the next page, so these are early printings, then an illustrated frontis portrait before the title page in each volume (the first volume shows Thompson when he was seventeen, the second volume shows him in a drawing by Everett Meynell in 1903, and the third volume shows him in a drawing by Neville Lytton in 1907), then a tissue guard, the title pages, a note by Thompson's literary executor in Vol I, three pages of Contents and 226 pages of text in Volume I, three pages of Contents and 228 pages of text in Volume II, and Volume III has a two-page preface by Francis Thompson's literary executor, a one-page Motto and Invocation by Thompson, two pages of Contents, 37 pages about Shelley, five more pages of Notes about Shelley after the text and a total of 291 pages of text in the third volume. All three books have the Burns and Oates monogram after the last page of text, then remnants of a library pocket on the rear paste-downs, and all the edges are gilt. Francis Thompson (1859 - 1907) was an English poet and Catholic mystic who took odd jobs before he became a poet and turned to opium to deal with a nervous breakdown; he was considered a great poet and compared to Robert Browning and was an influence on J. R. R Tolkien. who wrote the Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The books are 8vo. and measure 8 1/4 x 5 3/4 in. wide, with tight bindings, light rubbing at the heels, crowns, and along the edges of the spines, light rubbing on some of the gilt-fillet borders, traces of rubbing on the tips, two tips have light wear and are slightly turned in, occasional foxing, and still a handsome set of prose and poetry by Francis Thompson. #97 #1624