Father Tom and the Pope, or a Night in the Vatican

New York: A. Simpson, 1867. Hardcover. Very Good. Hardcover. According to the Dictionary of Irish Biography (Peter Denman, contributor), Sir Samuel Ferguson (1810–86) "wrote ‘Fr Tom and the pope’, a burlesque targeting Fr Thomas Maguire (1792–1847) a catholic controversialist, for Blackwood's. The story was frequently reprinted in the nineteenth century, because it is richly comic but also as an anti-catholic squib," but Ferguson was long wary of admitting authorship. Ferguson was an Irish poet and archivist who also studied law and was a member of the Irish bar. In 1878 Ferguson was knighted. He also received honorary degrees from Dublin University (1865) and Edinburgh (1884). Small quarto. Maroon cloth-covered boards with gilt title to spine. Top edge of pages in gilt. Some wear at corners and ends of spine. Interior is clean and bright. Literature. LIT2/6290.