The Harbinger; A May Gift
Boston: Carter, Hendee, 1833. First Edition. First printing (1,000 copies printed). Publisher's blue moiré cloth with printed spine label; x,[1]-98pp. Thin splits to cloth at joints, with small losses to spine ends; rubbing to spine label; mild foxing within, mostly confined to endpapers; Good and sound. Faint early (but undated) gift inscription in pencil, "To Frances Adelaide Gay / from a friend."
A joint venture between Oliver Wendell Holmes, Park Benjamin and John O. Sargent, published for sale at the Fair for the Institution for the Blind in Faneuil Hall, May, 1833. Benjamin contributed nineteen poems to the volume; Holmes contributed seventeen, constituting, in effect, the first published collection for both authors. Holmes would not publish his first book under his own name until 1836. And though Benjamin had published a college work, "Poem on the Meditation of Nature" in pamphlet form in 1832, Blanck writes: "The Harbinger, 1833, which contains nineteen of his poems,...is the only book issued during the poet's life which may, pamphlets aside, be considered one of his books." BAL 977 and 8723. WILSON II:469-71.
Price: $150.00