Percy Bysshe Shelley, The necessity of atheism (Worthing, 1811).

This small tract is a very rare survival of one of several anonymous pamphlets which were published by Percy Bysshe Shelley during his brief career (six months) at University College, Oxford. Before going to Oxford he had already published a collection of poetry with his sister Elizabeth, which had to be withdrawn when it was discovered that it contained a verse plagiarized from M.G. Lewis. Then in quick succession in 1811 there appeared a gothic novel called St Irvyne, or, The Rosicrucian, followed by the anticolonial, antimonarchical Poetical Essay (dedicated to the sixteen year old Harriet Westbrook, with whom he was to elope later that year) and then finally, in March, The necessity of atheism. The pamphlet was co-written with his friend T.J. Hogg, but John Munday, who had published some of Shelley’s previous work, refused to print it. This did not prevent Shelley from getting copies produced and then depositing them in the window of Munday’s shop, although on discovery they were burnt in the back kitchen. It was this pamphlet that led to the expulsion of both Shelley and Hogg when they refused to deny authorship in front of the University authorities.

Bequest of James Wood.