Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

American poet and educator (1807-1882) Fragment of an autograph letter. [Boston. 12mo. 2 pp. (19 lines).
$ 811 / 750 € (88901/BN58881)

The letter with New Year's wishes was probably addressed to a British friend, as Longfellow mentions his astonishment that Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) is little published in England: "A new interesting book, just published here in Boston, but not yet published in England except in old magazines. How is it that a writer of so much power as De Quincey is so much neglected in his own country?". - From 1851 Ticknor, Reed and Fields of Boston published the collected works of Thomas De Quincey, starting with his most famous work, "Confessions of an English Opium-Eater".

Longfellow also mentions Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Charles Lloyd, friends of De Quincey's, as well as a mutual friend or acquaintance who came to Boston "and has brought out six or eight extremely interesting volumes". - With a collector's note in pencil. Traces of folds. A minor tear to the fold and some browning..

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