“OUR FIRST PROFESSIONAL MAN OF LETTERS”

LOWELL, James Russell. The Writings of James Rusell Lowell in Prose and Poetry. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin; The Riverside Press, Cambridge, circa 1899. Eleven volumes. Octavo, publisher's three-quarter red morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, marbled boards and endpapers, top edges gilt. $1500.

“Riverside Edition” of the works of America’s “first professional man of letters” (Kunitz & Haycraft, 487), handsomely bound by Vauthain.

"No understanding of the cultural life of America in the 19th century can be complete without recognition of Lowell's centrality and versatility" (ANB). Includes Lowell's essays of literary criticism, his Civil War- and Reconstruction-era essays on national politics and his poems. With frontispiece portraits in the first, seventh, eighth and tenth volumes.

A fine set, handsomely bound.