Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, Including Americana

1p., horizontal 8vo (127 x 203 mm), 46 words, 9 lines in total, old folds, light toning or soiling to edges. Comprising the lines:

"Thus departed Hiawatha,
Hiawatha the Beloved,
In the glory of the sunset,
In the purple mists of evening,
To the regions of the home-wind,
Of the Northwest wind Keewaydin,
To the Islands of the Blessed,
To the kingdom of Ponemah,
To the land of the Hereafter!"

[Laid into:] LONGFELLOW. The Song of Hiawatha. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1855. 8vo. PUBLISHER'S DELUXE "GILT EXTRA" BLUE CLOTH, covers ruled and decorated in blind, central arabesque designs in gilt on both covers, spine lettered and decorated in gilt, all edges gilt (spine slightly darkened, light wear at spine ends); folding cloth chemise and morocco-backed slipcase. FIRST EDITION, A VERY FINE DELUXE "GILT EXTRA" COPY, HERE IN AN UNRECORDED VARIANT BINDING OF BLUE CLOTH, with the first issue points listed by BAL ("one" on p.279 present but with "n" printed slightly imperfectly). Provenance: Mary A. Fisk, Trenton, New Jersey (ownership signature dated November 1855 on front free endpaper (partially erased) and flyleaf). BAL 12112 (this is one of the "gilt extra" copies, which it is recorded, were normally issued without inserted advertisements; BAL, however, does not record copies in blue cloth).

LONGFELLOW'S MOST ICONIC WORK, The Song of Hiawatha, was described by the poet himself as his "Indian Edda." Written in trochaic tetrameter—the same rhythmic pattern as the Finnish Kalevala—the choice of meter was based on the mistaken belief, popularized by his ethnographic source Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, that it reflected the cadence of the Ojibwe language. The poem inspired a wide range of adaptations, from European symphonies (such as those by Antonín Dvořák and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor) to early silent films and stage plays. Its romanticized, often stereotypical portrayal of Native American life shaped public imagination in the 19th century, presenting Indigenous culture in a mythic, fairy-tale manner that both captivated and distorted contemporary understanding. AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPTS OF HIAWATHA ARE VERY RARE IN COMMERCE.