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Longfellow Presentation Copy

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Hyperion: A Romance

New York: Samuel Colman, 1839

Two volumes. 19th-century half brown morocco and marbled boards, nicely rebacked in matching morocco. Light wear and foxing. Very good.

FIRST EDITION. Presentation copy inscribed by Longfellow: “Henry R. Cleveland with the affectionate regards of the author” and with Cleveland’s signature and bookplate. Soon after he joined the Harvard faculty in 1836, Longfellow, Henry Cleveland, C. C. Felton, Charles Sumner, George Hillard formed an informal intellectual society they later called the “Five of Clubs.” No other presentation copy of Hyperion appears in the auction records of the past thirty years. Although Longfellow was later generous with presentation copies for his increasingly wide circle of friends and admirers, in his early years he reserved presentation copies for his family and closest friends. As a result they are rare in the market.

$3,500