Extensive commonplace anthology of verse from American and English poets.
[N. p., but Rhode Island?, ca. 1840]. Blank book in black half sheep and marbled boards, 9.88 x 7.75 inches, [2], 195 [i.e., 196] pages, including 8 leaves inserted with wax wafers and numbered consecutively. With the oversized edges of some of the tipped-in leaves gnawed; edges and corners somewhat rubbed; spine bowed, joints just a little cracked in spots; in good to very good condition, quite legible. Item #19955
An extensive anthology of verse, with a substantial portion devoted to the deaths of infants and children; the anthologist draws on noted poets like Lydia Huntley Sigourney, Bernard Barton, N. P. Willis (his lengthy poem, “The Leper”), and Leigh Hunt (in the poem addressed to his young son, “T.L.H., Six Years Old, During Sickness”), with a few verses for children (such as Jane Taylor’s uncredited “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”), and some deep cuts like the Rhode Island Quaker author Avis Howland. A few verses have been crossed out in contemporary ink; these few canceled examples tend toward what might be deemed vulgar or popular—an Irish lament, or Samuel Woodworth’s “The Bucket.” Laid in is a contemporary fair copy of Macaulay’s riddle beginning, “Cut off my head and singular I am,” etc. Given the provenance of this commonplace book from a bookseller’s inventory in Providence, and the sprinkling of Bernard Barton and the appearance of Avis Howland, there is a suggestion here possibly of a moderately worldly Rhode Island Quaker woman’s hand at work. A handsome blank book binding, with gossamer pastedowns.
Price: $350.00