first edition
1839
by [Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth]
1839. By the Author of "Outre-Mer." [In Two Volumes.] New-York: Published by Samuel Colman, 1839. 4 preliminary pp undated James Munroe ads. Original black cloth with spines elaborately gilt.
First Edition of Longfellow's first novel (peppered with verse), a very autobiographical tale about a young man touring through Europe, with a woman on his mind (Frances Appleton, who would not agree to marry Longfellow for four more years, in 1843 -- at which time her father would buy them Craigie House on Brattle Street in Cambridge). Colman had 1500 copies of HYPERION printed in Cambridge, and he bound about half of them in the boards-and-label style of the 1830s -- but went out of business within the year when the Panic of 1837 re-surfaced in the Fall of 1839. In 1844, the other ca. 750 sets of sheets were bought up by James Munroe of Boston, who issued some of them in two volumes, in this 1840s-style of cloth with extra gilt, and some two-volumes-in-one. This copy has both title pages in Blanck's "Setting A" (no priority between "A" and "B"; sets are found with all four combinations). Condition, remarkably, is bright and close to fine, with just a trace of wear at the fragile spine ends, and a faint damp-mark at one fore-corner; there is minor foxing, but it is pronounced only on the ad leaves. Blanck 12064. Provenance: Loosely inserted is a pass to The Longfellow Centenary ceremony at Sanders Theatre at Harvard, Feb. 27, 1907; the pass is for "Mrs. F.W. Hamilton" -- born Florence Quintard Mead, she was the first wife of Frederick W. Hamilton, who was then the President of Tufts University. (Inventory #: 15666)
First Edition of Longfellow's first novel (peppered with verse), a very autobiographical tale about a young man touring through Europe, with a woman on his mind (Frances Appleton, who would not agree to marry Longfellow for four more years, in 1843 -- at which time her father would buy them Craigie House on Brattle Street in Cambridge). Colman had 1500 copies of HYPERION printed in Cambridge, and he bound about half of them in the boards-and-label style of the 1830s -- but went out of business within the year when the Panic of 1837 re-surfaced in the Fall of 1839. In 1844, the other ca. 750 sets of sheets were bought up by James Munroe of Boston, who issued some of them in two volumes, in this 1840s-style of cloth with extra gilt, and some two-volumes-in-one. This copy has both title pages in Blanck's "Setting A" (no priority between "A" and "B"; sets are found with all four combinations). Condition, remarkably, is bright and close to fine, with just a trace of wear at the fragile spine ends, and a faint damp-mark at one fore-corner; there is minor foxing, but it is pronounced only on the ad leaves. Blanck 12064. Provenance: Loosely inserted is a pass to The Longfellow Centenary ceremony at Sanders Theatre at Harvard, Feb. 27, 1907; the pass is for "Mrs. F.W. Hamilton" -- born Florence Quintard Mead, she was the first wife of Frederick W. Hamilton, who was then the President of Tufts University. (Inventory #: 15666)
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