HARBINGER; A MAY GIFT

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Park Benjamin, and John O. Sargent. THE HARBINGER; A MAY GIFT. Boston: Carter, Hendee, 1833. First edition. Original full black morocco, fully gilt, inner dentilles gilt, a.e.g. Lightly rubbed, but a very nice copy in an elaborate presentation binding by Peter Low, and with a full-page pencil inscription (unsigned) on the front fly by one of the authors, Park Benjamin. In the inscription Benjamin first explains the circumstances of the publication of this volume, and then remarks that it was the work of "three friends who console themselves with the reflection that its success was greater than they had dared to anticipate. We repeat to each other the lines of a great poet, slightly altered. `If to its lot repeated errors fall, Think how it sold, and let's forget them all.'" Benjamin wrote the first third of the poems, Holmes the second, and Sargent the last section. The recipient has written on the title-page that the book is "a mass of rubbish" with "one or two pretty things" and has marked most of Holmes' poems as the best poems. The attractive binding has Peter Low's familiar style and ornaments; Low was a binder who operated from the second floor of the Old Corner Bookshop, and bound up many special leather presentation bindings for Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes, and other Boston authors. He was also responsible for the special "birds" bindings on the octavo edition of Audubon. We can trace no other presentation bindings on copies of this book, invarably found in blue muslin with a paper label, the only binding noted by BAL. Arnold, Chamberlain, Wakeman, Wilson, and Howe all had cloth copies, although Wilson also had a copy inscribed by Benjamin. This copy has a typed transcript of Benajmin's inscription indicating it was once sold by Goodspeed's Bookshop, Boston. This constitutes Holmes' first collection of poems, preceding his own first separate book by three years, and preceded only by a few contributions to gift books and a pamphlet. The edition was 1,000 copies, and it was sold at the Fair for the Institution for the Blind, held in Faneuil Hall in May, 1833. Holmes contributed seventeen poems, including `The Last Leaf' and `My Aunt.' BAL 977 and 8723. Currier-Tilton, p. 22. Wilson II:469-71.