The Kalevala: The Epic Poem of Finland into English... in Two Volumes

New York: John B. Alden, 1888. Small 8vo. Brown cloth with gilt spine lettering. xlix, 744pp. Top edge gilt. Very good. Touch of faint binding edgewear only, else tight and internally fine. Quite scarce first edition of the first full translation (based on Franz Anton Schiefner's seminal 1852 translation into German) of Finland's national epic, composed in the early 19th century by Elias Lönnrot in a rhyming blend of mythology and oral folklore. Its publication into various languages is complex, but Crawford's 1888 edition represents the first time this highly influential text could be read in its entirety in English. The single volume contains both volumes, Volume I being preface and pages 1-398 (Proem and Rune I-XXIV), with Volume II (with its own inner title page) being pages 393-744 (Rune XXV-L and epilogue); each volume has its own glossary. Front pastedown bears bookplate of what must have been the original owner, Frank W. Mahin, who on the facing front flyleaf pencils large and bold: "Frank. W. Mahin / Jan 5, 1889 / Clinton Iowa." Mahin (1851-1936) was an Iowa attorney and newspaper publisher and editor who then entered the diplomatic service, serving from 1897 to 1924 as U.S. Consul at Reichenberg, Nottingham and Amsterdam; he was supposedly a long-time friend of Mark Twain. John Martin Crawford (1845-1916) was a scholar and physician, later the U.S. consul-general to Russia, and the "Kalevala" was his first book. A sharp copy of an extremely uncommon text. (Inventory #: 50413)