Author: MACCOLL (Mary J.):
Title: Bide a Wee, and Other Poems.
Description: Buffalo [New York] Peter Paul & Brother, 1880. FIRST EDITION. Small 8vo, 170 x 122 mms., pp. vi, [7] - 103 [104 blank], cover and spine blocked in gilt, all edges gilt; front joint snagged, top and base of spine worn, but a good copy, with the following authorial inscription on the recto of the leaf before the title-page, "Miss Sarah Hill, -- with the kind regards and best wishes of the author -- Mary J. MacColl. Dec. / 79." The inscription pre-dates the publication date, suggesting that the work was published late in 1879, or that this is an early issue of the author's only book. Mary Jemima MacColl (1847 - 1920) was the daughter of the Scottish-born poet Evan MacColl (1808-1898). There are probably other inscribed copies of this volume, which proved to be very popular, but the best-known one is that she presented to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who wrote back thanking her, saying that the volume was "full of poetic beauty and deep feeling" (The Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Volume VI, 1875-1882, ed. by Andrew Hilen, Harvard University Press, 1982, p. 556).

Keywords: poetry provenance literature


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