The Song of Hiawatha
Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1855. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. This is the first edition, first printing of Longfellow’s epic poem. This first printing of 2 October 1855 is distinguished from the 22 November second printing by issue points at pages 32, 39, 96, 268, and 278. Condition approaches very good overall, complete and intact with notably clean contents. The gilt-printed and elaborately blind-decorated brown cloth remains tight with sharp corners, bright spine gilt, and no appreciable color shift between the covers and spine. We note various minor blemishes to the binding and some shelf wear, including wrinkling to the spine ends. The contents are clean and bright with a crisp, unread feel. The pale yellow endpapers are intact, as is the publisher’s “November, 1855” catalogue bound in at the rear. The sole previous ownership mark is the small, illustrated sticker of a “B. Dawson, Bookseller & Stationer” of “Montreal” affixed to the upper front pastedown. This is quite likely the original seller; Benjamin Dawson established his bookselling business in Montreal in 1847, which became “Dawson and Son” before Benjamin retired in 1860 and the business was reorganized as “Dawson Brothers”.
“Hiawatha was described by the poet as an “Indian Edda.” Though it has some epic characteristics, it is essentially a collection of traditional tales derived mainly from the writings of the ethnologist and explorer Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, who hailed it as the first literary work in which the American Indian was treated seriously and respectfully, and the Moravian missionary John G. E. Heckewelder.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was both a professor of modern languages and a poet. In the latter role he was a rare exception to the norm, achieving fame, acclaim, and broad popularity during his lifetime. “Longfellow was enormously popular, especially during his later years; at the end of his life, his birthday was even being celebrated in schools. He was as beloved in England as in America; people from everywhere came to see him, and his last trip to Europe in 1868–1869 was virtually a triumphant processional. Queen Victoria received him in a private audience, and both Oxford and Cambridge gave him honorary degrees. He was the first front-ranking New England poet of his time to die, and his death in Cambridge, closely followed by that of Ralph Waldo Emerson, for many marked the end of an era.” (ANB)
When first published thus in 1855, The Song of Hiawatha “was an immediate success, propelling Longfellow into literary stardom and influencing popular culture for decades to come. In this epic work, Longfellow set out to honor Native American heritage, but simultaneously perpetuated stereotypes and the false assertion that Indigenous culture was dying in America. Since then, the merits and pitfalls of Hiawatha have been rightly debated as its hold on American culture endures.” (NPS)
Reference: BAL 12112, p.494. Item #007803
Price: $700.00