The Savannah morning news., 1901-02-28

| the neat, firm writing of the Sage of Con-
| cord. and to hear the lively leaps in price
after the start of SIS. 1t is noteworthy
that many of the copies of this fullest
| collection OF first editionst of eight
| American authors were purchased by a
New York bookseller; II was also inter-
esting to see how many were bought to
go TO the West. Al of the authors ex-
cept Bryant were of the set that lived
in and around Boston. Hawthorne and
Emerson have been named. The others
/ were Homes, Longfel.ow, Lowell, Whit
tier and Thoreau. 1t was Thoreau who
said that he had a library of TO volumes.
most of them written by myself" when
he found himself with the greater part Of
an edition of one of his earlier works on
his hands. Thoreau was another Yankee
who knew posterity would like him IL
contemporaries did not; he went on writ
ing books in the CHEEKY luxury of life
possible to one who had so few personal
expenses that he did not have to count
them at all. Thoreau was not Obliged to
keep the pot boiling; he could live for
weeks al time quite joyfully on nuts
and johnnycake, and when he tired of his
own hermit housekeeping on Walden
Pond, Mrs. Emerson knew that he would
be sure to come and talk philosophy with
her husband, and stay to supper with the
family.
Thoreau's Week on the Concord and
Merrimac Rivers dated Boston and
Cambridge, 1919, brought $3.50 on the sec
gond day of this sale of American au-
thors; it was the best price paid for any
of the fourteen books with his name on
the title page that were offered for sale.
"Outre Mer," in the two rare paper vol
umes printed In Boston, before the book
was regularly published, in 1885, proved to
be the treasure of the Longfellow list.
These are rare little early copies of the
poets prose work, one in marbled paper,
one in light blue paper "OutreIMer" was
written soon after Longfellow's first mar
riage, while he was a professor at Bow
dom College. His young wife died IN Hol-
land in the autumn after 1t ives published.
The next summer he met Bryant and
while travelling in Switzerland met also
Miss Appleton, of Boston, who was the
inspiration of Hyperion" and who, some
years later, when he was a professor at
Harvard, became his wife and the mother
Of his son Ernest and the daughters who
live in perennial childhood in 1.-THE Chi
dren's Hour" as grave Alice and laugh
ing Allegro and Edith with go den hair"
These daughters all have houses now in
the enclosure Of Craigie House, at Cam
bridge. Miss Alice Longfellow lives in
Craigie House still, Mrs. Richard Henry
Dana and Mrs. Thorpe c ose by and Long
fellows grandchildren keep his old home
merry with the sound of youthful voices.
The LOweu List.
1t is touching that the first book in the
Lowell list to bring large price was the
Poems of Maria Lowell" This was a
privately printed oopy, edited by James
Russell Lowell; only fifty copies were
made and Cor private distribution but
thus the treasures of poets life become
the collectors treasures in another sense;
the little Silt-tited book brought 800 An.
other privately printed Lowell book, his
text of Prof Chld's I'll Pesceballo"
brought $40, and his very rare Yankee
IdyH," 'Mason and Slidell," $175 The
wonder comes just how the presentation
copy to +. II. Underwood of LowelPs
"Commemoration Ode" got out into the
world. No wonder bidding was lively no
wonder it brought $3.50 very quickly. Mr.
Underwood was editorlally connected with
the Atlantic Monthly" and he after
wards went abroad to love. Probably in
the dispersion of his books this gift from
his old frieud-one of only fifty copies of
the lode" printed for Lowells own use
came very naturally into the market The
suggestion is inevitable that other pres
entation copies of the same poem must
find their way 20 new owners. presen-
tation Oopy to Wordsworth from Keats
is owned in this country, and there is
no evidence that Wordsworth ever even
read 1t.
MOL Pitcher" by Whittier, always
commands money whenever she appears
The Arnold copy brought $780, the Quaker
poets early poem is worth more as
rare first edition than 1t is as poetry
"Megg Megone," also, a few years later
than Moll Is sought after in her separate
dress and finding. Whittier IS gaining a
new recognition in these latter days for
the intense Americanism and simplicity
of his poetry. A holograph manuscript
of his little-known poem, Gone" with an
autograph letter. brought $3.50. while a
fine copy of Homes "Autoerat Of the
Breakfast Table" with an autograph OF
a stanza from 'The Chambered Nautilus''
brought $35. DR.. Holmes would not have
believed that while he was alive, for he
was the best-petted man of his time, In
Boston, and perhaps also for lone Hun.
dred Days" in England.