Author: LINDSAY, Nicholas Vachel
Title: The Last Song of Lucifer
Description: New York, N.p. 1908. Paperback. 24mo. Wrappers. 14pp. Near fine. Text bright and tight and without any wear whatsoever; floral wallpaper outer wrapper (16mo) present but good only -- delicate and heavily edge chipped, with discrete archival mends. Quite rare apparent first edition (see below) of this early Lindsay poem and his first attempt at a chant, the form with which he is most often associated. The pamphlet itself is superb and handsome, and even the quite worn outer wallpaper wrapper attractive. Cecil K. Byrd notes in "Check List of the Melcher Lindsay Collection," "The first version of this poem was written in 1899, while Lindsay was attending Hiram College ( 1897-1900) but was not published until it appeared in this pamphlet. He carried printed copies of it with him to barter for a meal or a bunk while on a walking tour from New York City across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio to Hiram, Ohio, in April and May, 1908." Lindsay attended Hiram College to study medicine, but his parents' choice did not sit well with him and he left to study painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. After Lindsay's suicide in 1931 his comments about those days appeared in "Vachel Lindsay's Hiram Days" in the Hiram College yearbook: "Oratorically the standards of all the societies and classes were high. They knew what oratory was and often achieved it. All I would ask of Hiram would be as determined and enthusiastic a standard in all the other forms of creative art and letters.. At Hiram, while working on this annual, I also wrote my first long chant, which I read aloud to whoever would endure it— 'The Last Song of Lucifer.' ..This poem in pamphlet form I carried on my first begging trip, in 1906, through the South— Florida to Kentucky—also on the second one, New York to Hiram, 1908.. Try reading 'The Last Song of Lucifer' aloud. Many Hiram people burned up manuscript copies I gave them.” This last comment is perhaps fueled by embarrassment at an early effort, but the first appearance of this poem is rare and we find zero copies for sale, even going back quite a few years -- this seemingly the first copy to surface in decades. Whether Lindsay's memory of having an edition of this printed in 1906 is faulty is unknown -- or perhaps simply none survive. OCLC reports five copies worldwide, all in U.S. institutions -- and all five are the 1908 edition. BYRD 4. .
Keywords: Poetry
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Title: The Last Song of Lucifer
Description: New York, N.p. 1908. Paperback. 24mo. Wrappers. 14pp. Near fine. Text bright and tight and without any wear whatsoever; floral wallpaper outer wrapper (16mo) present but good only -- delicate and heavily edge chipped, with discrete archival mends. Quite rare apparent first edition (see below) of this early Lindsay poem and his first attempt at a chant, the form with which he is most often associated. The pamphlet itself is superb and handsome, and even the quite worn outer wallpaper wrapper attractive. Cecil K. Byrd notes in "Check List of the Melcher Lindsay Collection," "The first version of this poem was written in 1899, while Lindsay was attending Hiram College ( 1897-1900) but was not published until it appeared in this pamphlet. He carried printed copies of it with him to barter for a meal or a bunk while on a walking tour from New York City across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ohio to Hiram, Ohio, in April and May, 1908." Lindsay attended Hiram College to study medicine, but his parents' choice did not sit well with him and he left to study painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. After Lindsay's suicide in 1931 his comments about those days appeared in "Vachel Lindsay's Hiram Days" in the Hiram College yearbook: "Oratorically the standards of all the societies and classes were high. They knew what oratory was and often achieved it. All I would ask of Hiram would be as determined and enthusiastic a standard in all the other forms of creative art and letters.. At Hiram, while working on this annual, I also wrote my first long chant, which I read aloud to whoever would endure it— 'The Last Song of Lucifer.' ..This poem in pamphlet form I carried on my first begging trip, in 1906, through the South— Florida to Kentucky—also on the second one, New York to Hiram, 1908.. Try reading 'The Last Song of Lucifer' aloud. Many Hiram people burned up manuscript copies I gave them.” This last comment is perhaps fueled by embarrassment at an early effort, but the first appearance of this poem is rare and we find zero copies for sale, even going back quite a few years -- this seemingly the first copy to surface in decades. Whether Lindsay's memory of having an edition of this printed in 1906 is faulty is unknown -- or perhaps simply none survive. OCLC reports five copies worldwide, all in U.S. institutions -- and all five are the 1908 edition. BYRD 4. .
Keywords: Poetry
Price: US$ 1750.00 Seller: Main Street Fine Books & Manuscripts
- Book number: 50929
- Book number: 50929
See more books from our catalog: Books