For collectors of antiquarian books of verse by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882), up for auction is a relatively well-preserved -- and handsomely illustrated -- cloth-bound copy of The Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, which was published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company of New York in 1883, and is possibly one of the earliest posthumous collections of the poet's entire body of verse.
The gilt-titled and -decorated brown and black cloth-covered volume measures approximately 6-1/2 inches wide by 10 inches high and comprises 305 pages. The book has inside it an assortment of additional items laid within by a previous owner (or a number of owners), including a long red bookmark, a hand-cut paper bookmark (see 4th photo uploaded), two interesting old photographs (a small one of a woman and a larger one of a long-haired young girl, seen in last two photos uploaded), a child's school paper (with beautiful ink penmanship; see 13th photo uploaded), and several damaged piece of floral-decorated cloth. There are a couple printer's errors / flaws in the book, one being that two of the Contents pages in the front matter are in the wrong place, with pages vii and viii being bound in the wrong place and appearing BEFORE the first two pages of the contents, which are bound in immediately before the poems begin, on page 11. Note that on the reverse of the frontispiece image -- which is captioned "Bright in her father's hall. -- Page 29 -- and is from the poem "The Skeleton in Armor" a former owner's name is lightly written in pencil, reading "M. E. Parker."
Note that the in-text illustrations in the book are by various artists, with some of them signed and many of them not. Among the names appearing next to the images are B. Fastel (or Fastel?), H. Harral, Henn, W. Thomas, and B. Vizetelly.
There's a tissue guard (smaller than
the pages) at the title-page spread, which should have the frontispiece image at the left but because of the mis-bound pages has a blank page instead. The title page, which includes an ornate publisher's colophon with "H" and "M" in a shield, reads:
THE COMPLETE
POETICAL
WORKS
OF
HENRY
WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.
WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
[Houghton, Mifflin colophon]
BOSTON:
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY.
The Riverside Press, Cambridge.
1883.
The following page lists the various
copyrights, and it reads in full:
Copyright,
1841, 1843, 1846, 1847, 1849, 1855, 1858, 1863, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1869, 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875,
1876, 1877, 1878, and 1880.
BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW.
All rights reserved.
I'll just include here the headings of
the poems within, as listed in the front matter's partly mis-bound "Contents":
I’ll just include here the introduction to Longfellow’s
lengthy Wikipedia entry:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 –
March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include
the poems "Paul Revere’s Ride,” “The Song of Hiawatha,” and “Evangeline.” He
was the first American to completely translate Dante Alighieri’s Divine
Comedy and was one of the fireside poets from New England.
Longfellow was born in Portland, District of Maine, Massachusetts
(now Portland, Maine). He graduated from Bowdoin College and
became a professor there and, later, at Harvard College after
studying in Europe. His first major poetry collections were Voices of
the Night (1839) and Ballads and Other Poems (1841).
He retired from teaching in 1854 to focus on his writing, and he lived the
remainder of his life in the Revolutionary War headquarters of George
Washington in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
His first wife, Mary Potter, died in 1835 after a miscarriage.
His second wife, Frances Appleton, died in 1861 after sustaining burns when her
dress caught fire. After her death, Longfellow had difficulty writing poetry
for a time and focused on translating works from foreign languages. Longfellow
died in 1882.
Longfellow wrote many lyric poems known for their musicality and
often presenting stories of mythology and legend. He became the most popular
American poet of his day and had success overseas. He has been criticized for
imitating European styles and writing poetry that was too sentimental.
The overall condition of this gilt and embossed brown and black cloth-covered antiquarian volume, which does not come with a dust jacket / wrapper, is fair to good, considering its great age. The bevel-edged binding is relatively tight and square, but with corner-bumping and -bending, edgewear, and tears and damage at the top and tail of the spine, as well as rubbing, smudging, scratching, spotting, etc. The solid brown end pages are clean and unmarked. There's a former owner's name lightly penciled on the reverse of the frontispiece (reading "M. E. Parker"). The 305 pages within are quite age-toned / yellowed / darkened, with spotting, foxing, corner bends (including on some mis-cut pages within; see the 17th- and 18th photos uploaded for two examples), etc. There is a major printer's error in the book, with two of the Contents pages in the front matter bound in the wrong place (pages vii and viii appearing BEFORE the first two pages of the contents, pages v and vi, which are bound in immediately before the poems begin, on page 11). There appear to be no other annotations, marginalia, underlining, scribbles, etc., anywhere within, nor any other printer's flaws or major damage in the way of clipped or missing pages, tape repairs, water or other liquid damage, large tears, etc. (note that I did not look closely at each and every page and may have missed something else, including other mis-bound or misnumbered pages). The three page edges are smooth-cut, gilded, and a bit spotted, smudged, etc. The book has neither a musty nor smoky odor. There's an assortment of interesting old cloth and paper items -- bookmarks, what looks like a school report, remnants of ribbon and material, and photographs -- from previous readers and/or owners left within (these can be seen in the 4th, 13th-15th, 18th, 21st, and 24th photos uploaded).
This copy of The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published by Houghton, Mifflin of New York, is being sold AS IS, AS DESCRIBED ABOVE AND PICTURED WITHIN. I am setting what I feel is a reasonable starting price for the auction, and there is NO RESERVE. I am also including a Buy It Now price.
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