Male : Writer of Oriental tales & Travel books who inherited the Fonthill estate in Wiltshire in 1770. He pulled down the existing house, Fonthill Splendens and in 1796 had the architect James Wyatt build Fonthill Abbey, a Gothic mansion, for him (it collapsed in 1825 !). His library was inherited by his son-in-law the 10th Duke of Hamilton, who had married Beckford's second daughter Susanna

Nationality : English Place of Birth : Fonthill-Gifford, Wiltshire

Date of Birth : 1760 Date of Death : 1844 Age : 84

Editions of Vathek, Written Anonymously
An Arabian Tale from an Unpublished MS (1786 for J Johnson, London)
- the 1st English text of Vathek
[Translated by Samuel Henley]
Offered in 1999 for £750
1786 : J Johnson - Large Paper Edition
First Edition in French : 1786 Dec, 1787 Isaac Hignou, Lausanne
Offered in 1992 for £2500
2nd French Edition : 1787 Poincot, Paris
Offered in 1992 for £600
2nd English Edition : 1809 W Clarke
3rd French Edition : 1815 Clarke
3rd Revised & Corrected English Edition : 1816 W Clarke
4th Revised & Corrected Edition : 1823 W Clarke
Bentley's Standard Novels Edition : 1834 Richard Bentley
Garnett's Edition (1893) - Herbert Nye
The Episodes of Vathek : 1912 Stephen Swift, London
Omnibus Edition of the Episodes of Vathek : 1929 Constable/Houghton Mifflin. 2 vols. 1000 sets
1st Edition of Herbert B Grimsditch's Translation : 1929 Nonesuch Press.
1550 copies. Marion Dorn
(1945 Ltd Eds Club, NY) - Valenti Angelo
2nd Edition of Herbert B Grimsditch's Translation : 1953 Bodley Head. Charles W Stewart

Other Works
1780-1790
Biographical Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters (1780 J Robson) - Anon
(1780 J Robson. 2nd Ed)
Thoughts on Hunting (1781 Salisbury)
Dreams, Waking Thoughts and Incidents (1783 J Johnson / P Emsley) - Anon

1791-1800
(Trans) Popular Tales of the Germans (1791 John Murray) - 2 vols. Anon
Modern Writing, or the The Elegant Enthusiast (1796 Robinson) - by Rt Hon Lady Harriet Marlow
A Descriptive Account of the Island of Jamaica (1796 London) - 2 vols
Azemia : A Descriptive & sentimental Novel (1797 Sampson Low)
- 2 vols. As Agneta Mariana Jenks
The Story of Al Raoui : A Tale from the Arabian (1799 C Geisweiler) - Anon

19thC
Epitaphs : Some of which have appeared in the Literary Gazette (1825) - Anon pamphlet
Italy : with Sketches of Spain & Portugal (1834 Bentley) (1834 Key & Biddle, Phila) - 2 vols. Anon
Recollections of an Excursion to the Monasteries of Alcobaca & Batalha (1835 Bentley) - Anon

20thC
The Travel Diaries (Ed Guy Chapman) (1928 Constable/Houghton Mifflin) - 2 vols. 750 sets
The Vision and Liber Veritatis (1930 Constable / Richard R Smith)
- edited by G Chapman. 750 copies
The Journal in Portugal and Spain 1787-8 (Ed Boyd Alexander) (1954 Hart-Davis) (1955 Day, NY)
Life at Fonthill 1807-22 (1957 Hart Davis 35/-)
Christmas at Fonthill, 1781 (1962 D'Arch Smith)
Dreams, Waking Thoughts & Incidents (1971 Fairleigh Dickinson Press, Jeaneck)
The Transient Gleam : A Bouquet of Beckford's Poesy (1991 Aylesford Press) - 300 copies

READING
James Storer : A Description of Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire (1812)
John Rutter : A Description of Fonthill Abbey (1822)
John Rutter : Delineations of Fonthill & Its Abbey (1823)
Cyrus Redding : Memoirs of William Beckford, Author of Vathek (1859 Charles J Skeet) - 2 vols
Henry Venn Lansdown : Recollections of the Late William Beckford (1893)
Lewis Melville : The Life & Letters of William Beckford (1910 Heinemann)
Guy Chapman & John Hodgkin : A Bibliography of William Beckford of Fonthill
(1930 Bibliographia No 2, London) - 500 copies
Sacheverell Sitwell : Beckford and beckfordism (1930 Duckworth) - 265 signed
John W oliver : The Life of William Beckford (1932 OUP)
Guy Chapman : Beckford (1937 Cape) (1952 Hart Davis)
H A N Brockman : The Caliph of Fonthill (1956 Werner Laurie)
Howard B Gotlieb : William Beckford of Fonthill - Writer, Traveller, Collector, Caliph 1760-1844
(1960 Yale UP)
Alexander Boyd : England's Wealthiest Son - A Study of Beckford (1962 centaur Press)
James Lees-Milne : William Beckford (1976 Compton Russell)
Brian Fothergill : Beckford of Fonthill (1979 Faber)
Jon Millington : Beckford's Tower - Bath, An Illustrated Guide (1993 Bath Preservation Trust)
Timothy Mowl : William Beckford - Composing for Mozart (1998 John Murray £22)