ANONYMOUS [Samuel Ferguson, attr.]; Frederic S. Cozzens, "anti-pref."

Father Tom and the Pope, or A Night in the Vatican

New York: Moorhead, Simpson & Bond, 1868. First Thus. Small, slim octavo (ca. 20cm.); publisher's purple blind-ruled cloth, gilt spine; xiv,[5]-63pp.; illus. throughout, text printed on pale brown-wash stock. Light shelf wear, spine toned to tan with spotting to cloth sizing, contemporary ownership ex libris of a Wm. H. Davis accomplished in manuscript to front pastedown, else Very Good, internally sound.

Attributed to the Irish poet and barrister Samuel Ferguson (1810-1886). Though unnamed in this edition, the "anti-preface" by American novelist Frederic S. Cozzens quotes from a letter from the unnamed author: "[Father Tom and the Pope] was written by me in the summer of 1838, just about the time of my call to the Irish Bar. No one else had any hand in it...I have never made any secret of the authorship, but as I have constantly endeavored in any literary work I have been able to do for many years back to elevate the Irish subject out of the burlesque, I have an indisposition to place my name on the title-page of so very rollicking a piece as Father Tom" (p. vii). Erroneously listed in Wright II 649 under the authorship of Cozzens. BAL 4010.

Price: $65.00

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