THE WAIF: A Collection of Poems. | THE BELFRY OF BRUGES and Other Poems

1846. [inscribed by "Mrs. Longfellow"] [Together, two volumes, bound together.] Cambridge: Published by John Owen, 1845 | 1846. Bound in three-quarter black morocco with gilt-decorated spine (reading "Waif. | Belfry | of Bruges").

"Second Edition" (printing) of THE WAIF -- (the first printing was likewise dated 1845) -- a book edited anonymously by Longfellow but including (with his name) his famous preliminary "Proem" -- later titled "When Day Is Done." And: First Edition of THE BELFRY OF BRUGES, which though dated 1846, was published in late-December 1845. Both of these were originally issued in either paper wrappers or paper-covered boards (truncated) -- very fragile bindings intended to be temporary, for the buyer to take to their fine binder of choice. The Longfellows often had their personal copies of his own books bound up by Peter Low, who operated his bindery in the rooms above the Old Corner Bookshop (he had emigrated from London, where his father and grandfather had also been in the book business); the Longfellows invariably used him when they wanted special bindings for presentation purposes (see Carroll Wilson, THIRTEEN AUTHOR COLLECTIONS, for similar examples in Low bindings). Condition is very good-plus, rubbed at the extremities. Blanck 12083 (and see 12075). The front flyleaf is inscribed, "William S. Tiffany | with Mrs. Longfellow's | regards. | Cambridge | Jan 1845." (The first printing of THE WAIF was published in January 1845, and THE BELFRY was published in December of that year -- so Mrs. Longfellow appears to have made the common error of accidentally ante-dating something at the beginning of a new year.) Longfellow's first wife, Mary Potter, had died in 1835 (at age 22) following a miscarriage abroad; he had recently (1843) married Frances "Fanny" Appleton (who would die in 1861, when melted sealing wax she was using dripped onto her light cotton dress, at Craigie House). The recipient of this volume was William Shaw Tiffany (1825-1907), who at the time was a recent graduate of Harvard (class of 1845) -- but who would become a renowned painter, illustrator and sculptor. For several years in the early 1850s he studied art in Paris, returning in 1854. In April 1861 he joined a Massachusetts regiment in the Civil War; after re-enlisting in 1864, he was taken prisoner in March 1865, but was "exchanged" nineteen days later as the war drew to a close. A good friend of William Morris Hunt, his best-known paintings include "Lenore" and (donated to Memorial Hall, Harvard) "St. Christopher Bearing the Christ Child." Notably, this volume includes (on p. 29 of THE WAIF and on p. 27 of THE BELFRY) highly-competent pencil sketches, each in effect "illustrating" the poem on that page. These two sketches could only have been done by one of two people: the young budding-artist Tiffany who received this volume, or Fanny Appleton Longfellow who presented this volume to him. She was an accomplished artist herself (see examples of her pencil sketches, quite similar to those in this book, at White Mountain Art -- including two of the earliest artistic images of New Hampshire's Old Man of the Mountains) -- though she is said to have curtailed her art after her marriage to Longfellow. In any case, this mutual love of art (and skill at creating it) assuredly answers the question: Why was it Fanny and not Henry who inscribed this volume to young Tiffany? (Inventory #: 15685)