A Legend of the Coos

San Francisco: Philopolis Press, 1909. First Edition. Hardcover. Near fine. Duodecimo size, 45 pp. A small volume published by the Philopolis Press in 1909, telling in poem form within a Native American setting the age-old story of two lovers and the fate which divided them. The Philopolis Press ("Love of the City") was founded shortly after the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Led by Arthur and Lucia Mathews, a group of artists and writers who shared a vision of "the rebuilding of San Francisco as an urban utopia" came together and the Philopolis Press was born. For ten years they published books, ephemera, and a monthly magazine which addressed issues such as urban planning, public education, and govenment; in one article the term "Calitopia" was coined, "to realize the glories of mythical Utopia in California". (n. b., above quotes and much info from "American Arcadia: California and the Classical Tradition" by Peter J. Holliday.)

Agnes Ruth Lockhart Sengstacken (1859-1948) was one of six children of a couple who immigrated to Oregon in 1851 via wagon train; she was born in a two-room log cabin on land which would eventually become known as Myrtle Point. "An accomplished lecturer and the author of numerous poems and articles", she continued to publish through the age of 83.

___DESCRIPTION: Brown paper-covered boards with gilt lettering and a small gilt illustration of a California poppy on the front, fore- and bottom edges uncut, plain endpapers, frontispiece a photographic reproduction in sienna of a waterfall; duodecimo size (7" by 5.25"), pagination: [i-viii] 1-36 [37].

___CONDITION: Overall near fine, with the binding clean with only mild rubbing, a strong, square text block, hinges slightly tender but unbroken, the interior clean with the pages very lightly toned, and free of prior owner markings; a bit of wear to the head and tail of the spine, and one short tear (approx. one inch) to the fore-edge margin of the leaf for pp. 33-34; a lovely example.

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