First Mention of Poe in a book
(POE, EDGAR ALLAN.) Kettell, Samuel, ed. Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices
Boston: S.G. Goodrich, 1829
Three volumes. 30 pp. Catalogue of American Poetry at end. Original purple muslin-backed boards, printed paper spine labels, untrimmed. Labels worn, one joint split, spines worn and repaired. Foxing.
First edition. This important work, which contains the first mention of Poe’s work in a book, is the earliest bibliography of American poetry. This set includes the work of nearly 200 poets up to 1829, with Kettell supplying biographical sketches for each writer, ranging from Cotton Mather to Francis Scott Key, Washington Irving, and Sarah J. Hale. The Catalogue of American Poetry at the end lists “Tamerlane, and other poems, by a Bostonian, Boston, 1827”—the first mention of any work by Poe in a printed book. According to Roger Stoddard, this catalogue is the beginning of the bibliography of early American poetry.
BAL 3251.
$3,000