The Mountaineer of the Neversink: A Poem in Four Cantos [Presentation Copy, Inscribed to Oliver Wendell Holmes]

Philadelphia: Henry B. Ashmead, 1873. First Edition, privately printed. Octavo (20cm); dark green cloth, with titling and decorations stamped in gilt on front cover; sandy brown endpapers; [2],[iv],[5-7],8-95,[3]pp. A presentation copy, inscribed by the author on a preliminary blank – "To Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes / with the respects of The Author," and with three ink corrections in the author's hand on pp.90 and 94. Ex-Boston College duplicate, with three rubber-stamps on title page, and "Dup." written in an early hand on copyright page. Light wear to spine ends and extremities, faint evidence of label removal from lower spine, with a thin crack to gutter at title page; Very Good or better. A religious pastoral romance set in the Catskills, centered around the mountaineer Waldo Wayne. Most of Holmes's library is held by the Library of Congress, gifted by his son Justice Holmes, with few such titles appearing in the marketplace. This copy apparently given to Boston College, later sold as a duplicate. (Inventory #: 82851)