Several Poems Compiled with great Variety of Wit and Learning, full of Delight. By a Gentlewoman in New-England. The Third Edition, corrected by the Author, and enlarged by an Addition of several other Poems found amongst her Papers after her Death.

Beschreibung:

The earliest edition realistically obtainable as a complete copy, by the writer credited as not only "the first American to publish a book of poetry" (ANB), but also "the first English woman and the first New Englander to publish a collection of original poems, and so may claim to be both the first female poet and the first colonial poet in English" (ODNB). Anne Bradstreet (1612/13-1672) was born in England, and moved to America in 1630. The Bradstreets were one of the most politically significant families in 17th-century New England, both her father and husband serving as governor of Massachusetts. Bradstreet was dedicated to poetry from an early age, and following the circulation of her work in manuscript, her poems were first published in London in 1650 under the title The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung up in America, without her knowledge or consent. A greatly expanded edition was posthumously published in America in 1678, by John Foster in Boston, revised by the author for publication and including 18 further poems, some found among her papers at the time of her death. Both of those editions are very rare on the market, and very possibly unprocurable in a complete copy - a copy of the 1650 edition was last recorded at auction by Rare Book Hub in 1979, that lacking leaves, with three other copies known to pass through the hands of William Reese in the last three decades, also lacking leaves; a copy of the 1678 edition is last recorded at auction by Rare Book Hub in 1948, similarly lacking leaves. This edition of 1758 is the earliest where complete copies are heard of on the market, and is still exceedingly rare. Textually, it reprints that of 1678, with the errata corrected. "Her work was highly valued in her time (hers was the only book of poetry found in Edward Taylor's library at his death), devalued in the nineteenth century, and appreciated anew in the twentieth. It is avowedly Puritan but multivocal, sometimes patriarchal, sometimes feminist. throughout Bradstreet's work the largest issues and greatest truths find expression in humble details, and those details are in turn examined for what they will reveal of God. her contemporaries and such successors as Cotton Mather heaped praises upon the poetry in which their own beliefs were so profoundly questioned. In Bradstreet's work, such paradoxes argue not hypocrisy but integrity. She was what she appeared to be - a poet, a woman, and a Puritan - and her work continues to suggest how complex such categories can be" (ANB). Evans, American Bibliography, 8091; ESTC W22243; Sabin 7298; Stoddard & Whitesell, A Bibliographical Description of Books and Pamphlets of American Verse, 116; Wegelin, Early American Poetry, 30. This edition is ascribed by Evans and others to have been printed in Boston, but Stoddard and Whitesell suggest Newport, Rhode Island, identifying the printer's ornaments as used by Anne Smith Franklin or James Franklin Jr. Duodecimo (151 x 93 mm). Woodcut printer's ornaments. Recent sprinkled calf to style, red morocco spine label, raised bands, gilt twin fillets on spine and boards, new endpapers preserving earlier front free endpaper with early female ownership. Housed in a burgundy cloth flat-back box by the Chelsea Bindery. Signature of "Samuel Buell's Book 1773" on title page and "Polly Buel[l] Owner" on preserved front free endpaper (one letter obscured by loss) - being Reverend Samuel Buell (1716-1798) and his daughter Mary Polly Buell (1768-1849). Contents browned and occasionally foxed, trimmed close in places (in some cases slightly shaving text but sense fully recoverable), repaired closed tear at outer edge of R1, some page numbers and catchwords affected by print shop accidents, with resulting tiny holes and short tears neatly repaired (R2, T1, Aa5-6, Bb1), some with pen facsimile, small instances of loss professionally infilled (upper margin of T5, outer corners of title lead and Bb2-6). Overall a very good copy. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 157473

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