signed by Longfellow
LONGFELLOW, HENRY WADSWORTH. From My Arm-Chair
[Boston], [1879]
Bifolium (279 x 265mm). Separating at fold, stain at lower margin and to last page. In paper chemise with slipcase.
FIRST EDITION. Signed by Longfellow. When the “spreading chestnut tree” referred to in Longfellow’s “The Village Blacksmith” was felled for the widening of Brattle Street, the children of Cambridge paid to have a chair made from its wood for the now elderly poet.
Longfellow was increasingly thought of as a children’s poet, and he wrote this poem in thanks for their gift. This pamphlet was given as a souvenir to children who visited him and sat in the chair.
BAL state A of the text, with Longfellow’s signature on the last page. The poem later appeared in Longfellow’s collection Ultima Thule. BAL 12212.
Rare: no other copies have appeared for public sale in the past forty years.
Provenance: Howard Lehman Goodhart, 1884-1951 (morocco book label).
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