HEWITT, Mary E. ed.

Laurel Leaves: A Chaplet Woven by the Friends of the Late Mrs. Osgood.

Item #77501

HEWITT, Mary E. ed. Laurel Leaves: A Chaplet Woven by the Friends of the Late Mrs. Osgood. Original gilt-pictorial pigskin, spine elaborate gilt, A.e.g. New York: Lamport, Blakeman & Law, 1854. First edition thus. Rare, Worldcat locates 17 copies. We can find no record of a copy being offered for sale since 1956. Portrait frontispiece, plate, engraved vignettes. Additional chromolithographic title page. An elaborate memorial to the poet Frances Sargent Osgood (1811-1850) who was known for her close association with Poe. The contributions, include poetry, fiction and travel, and the list of contributors is impressive: Nathaniel Hawthorne ("The Snow Image"), Sarah Helen Whitman, Bayard Taylor, James T. Fields, George Henry Boker, Lydia Sigourney, William Gilmore Sims, et al. The publisher's Advertisement notes: "This volume ... was originally published as 'The Memorial;' with the hope of creating a fund, ...for the purpose of erecting a monument to the memory of the late lamented Mrs. Frances Sargent Osgood; but having failed, in consequence of the retarded period at which it was issued from the press, the stereotype plates of the work were subsequently ... purchased by the present publishers, who now offer it as a suitable Gift Book for the Holiday season.." That volume was published in 1851 by George P. Putnam. This volume was also edited by Rufus W. Griswold, who was responsible for the trend of naming collections of poetry and gift books with "Leaves," influencing Whitman to name his collection Leaves of Grass. Front hinge tender, else a very good copy.

Price: $750.00