“AMERICA’S BEST-KNOWN LONG NARRATIVE POEM”: LONGFELLOW’S SONG OF HIAWATHA, FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL CLOTH, WITH HIS GOLDEN LEGEND
LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth. The Song of Hiawatha. WITH: The Golden Legend. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1855, 1862. Two volumes. 12mo, original brown cloth gilt. Housed in custom chemise and half morocco slipcase.
First edition, first printing of “America’s best-known long narrative poem” (Trachtenberg, i), together with a later edition of The Golden Legend, both books in original cloth.
“An exuberant reception greeted the appearance of The Song of Hiawatha in Boston bookshops in November 1855. In the first six months about 50,000 copies crossed the counter, matching the record-breaking sales of an American book five years earlier, Uncle Tom’s Cabin… Shortly after the poem’s publication, the nation’s and soon the world’s best-loved poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, had resigned his post as professor of modern languages at Harvard and soon became the first poet in America’s history to earn a living from writing alone… ‘There is something in the poem,’ Longfellow mused, ‘which has taken hold of the popular fancy” (Trachtenberg, 52, 55). While later readers have often criticized the poem for its sing-song quality and its romanticized (and arguably condescending) view of Native Americans, Hiawatha retains a significant place in American literary and intellectual history. Based on a medieval German tale, The Golden Legend tells of a sick young German prince whose soul is saved from the Devil by a maiden’s willingness to sacrifice herself. Hiawatha is first edition, first printing, with “In the Moon” at page 32, line 11 and all other first printing points. With 12 pages of advertisements dated November 1855. The Golden Legend first published in 1851. BAL 12112. Old pencil annotations, owner inscriptions to front endpapers of both volumes; old dealer description tipped to front free endpaper of Hiawatha; additional contemporary owner inscription to first leaf of Golden Legend. Occasional old pencil marginalia in Golden Legend.
Hiawatha with paper clip impression to first several gatherings, cloth lightly rubbed, spine gilt bright. Golden Legend with mild rubbing to cloth, including minor wear to spine ends; rear inner paper hinge split, binding sound. A near-fine pair of volumes.