Longfellow’s First Book, inscribed to One of the “Five of Clubs”
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. Voices of the Night. Cambridge, MA: John Owen, 1839. First edition. Inscribed by the author "Mrs. Charles Amory, from the author, with his regards and best wishes, December 25, 1839." The first edition of the author's first book of poems, printed in an edition of only 900 copies. BAL 12065.
Longfellow met Amory (1808-1898) in 1829, when both were students at Gottingen. They renewed the acquaintance in 1836 when both found themselves at Harvard, where Longfellow had been appointed as a professor and Amory was studying medicine. In his journal for 1838, the poet referred to Amory as “my usual resource” for dinner. With three other companions, including the future senator Charles Sumner, the two formed a small circle known as “The Five of Clubs.” In 1841, Longfellow would allude to Amory and two other friends with the same surname in his poem “To the River Charles”: “thy name reminds me / Of three friends, all true and tried, / And that name, like magic binds me / Closer, closer to thy side.” Amory’s wife, Martha Babcock Greene Amory (1812-1880) was the granddaughter of John Singleton Copley, and his first biographer. She married Amory in 1832, and chronicled their wedding journey in detailed letters published in 1922.
Small pencil inscription to second blank: “Morris Carter from S.G.D.” Susan Greene Dexter (1840-1903) was the Amory's daughter. Carter (1877-1965) was the first director of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. An exceptional association copy with an impeccable provenance connecting some of the first families of Boston. Beautifully bound in maroon calf tooled in gold.
Sources
- Martha Babcock Amory, The Wedding Journey of Charles and Martha Babcock Amory (D. B. Updike, 1922)
- Charles C. Calhoun, Longfellow: A Rediscovered Life (Beacon Press, 2004)
- Samuel Longfellow, Life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Kegan Paul, Trench & co., 1886)
Product tabs
SOLD
Earn 0Reward points
Recommend this product

Longfellow’s First Book, inscribed to One of the “Five of Clubs”
Related products
Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1894). First American edition, with a suppressed Sherlock Holmes story
Doyle, Arthur Conan (1859 – 1930). The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1894. First American edition, first state. pp. 28...
view details
$975
View details
Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association, Atlanta: Laura Austin Dickinson's Optimism and Other Poems (1929)
$0
$0
Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association, Atlanta: Laura Austin Dickinson's Optimism and Other Poems (1929)
Laura Austin Dickinson, Optimism and Other Poems. Amherst: The Elms, 1929. First edition. 51 p.: ill.; 20 cm. Near fine in burgundy cloth, lettered in...
view details
$0
View details
$75
Chester HIMES. The Third Generation (1954). First edition.
HIMES, Chester (1909-1984). The Third Generation. Cleveland: World Publishing Company, 1954. First edition. Near fine in a very good dustwrapper. T...
view details
$75
View details
$1,250
Elias Hicks. A collection of extemporaneous discourses (1830). The schismatic who inspired Lucretia Mott and Walt Whitman.
Hicks, Elias (1748-1830). A collection of extemporaneous discourses, delivered by Elias Hicks, in his tour through Dutchess County, during the summer ...
view details
$1,250
View details
$45,000
Thomas Paine. Common Sense. The first London edition (1776), completed in manuscript
Paine, Thomas (1737-1809). Common Sense; Addressed to the Inhabitants of America… A New Edition, with several Additions in the Body of the Work. To wh...
view details
$45,000
View details
$5,000
Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow. First edition, inscribed by the author.
Chambers, Robert W. The King in Yellow. Chicago: F. Tennyson Neely, 1895. First Edition. First Issue. Pictorial cloth a little toned and soiled, short...
view details
$5,000
View details
$200
Robert Frost delivers a sermon on Sukkot
Frost, Robert (1874 – 1963). A Sermon by Robert Frost spoken on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles at the Rockdale Avenue Temple, Cincinnati, O...
view details
$200
View details
$0
A Rare Pictorial Life of St. Catherine With Manuscript Translations in Catalan
SWELINCK, Jan (fl. 1609-1660) and Thomas DE LEU (1560-1612). D. Catharinae Senensis Virginis SS. Ord. Praedicatorum vita ac miracula selectiora formi...
view details
$0
View details
$375
A feminist view on the Civil War: Caroline Kirkland's A Few Words [1863]
[Kirkland, Caroline (1801-1864)]. A Few words in behalf of the loyal women of the United States, by one of themselves. Loyal Publication Society, no. ...
view details
$375
View details
$125,000
Benjamin Franklin. The Way to Wealth (ca. 1760), one of five recorded copies
[Franklin, Benjamin]. Father Abraham's speech to a great number of people, at a vendue of merchant-goods; introduced to the public by Poor Richard, (a...
view details
$125,000
View details
$175
Garrett P. Serviss & the Max Fleischer Studios. Koko the Clown studies Einstein!
Serviss, Garrett P. & Roland D. Crandall [Max Fleischer Studios]. The Einstein Theory of Relativity. New York: Edwin Miles Fadman, Inc, 1923. A bo...
view details
$175
View details
$350
Peggy Bacon, Off with their Heads! (1934). Association copy, inscibed with original sketch.
Bacon, Peggy (1895-1987) Off with their Heads! New York: Robert M. McBride, 1934. First edition. 89 p; 32 cm. A rather worn copy, very good in cloth-b...
view details
$350
View details
$850
Philip K. Dick. Ubik (1969). First edition.
Dick, Philip K. (1928 -- 1982). Ubik. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969. First edition. Blind stamp to title page, traces of ink removal to edge of pag...
view details
$850
View details
$975
Flora L. Shaw. Phyllis Browne. First edition (1883)
Shaw, Flora L[ouise] (1852-1929). Phyllis Browne. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1883. First edition. 385p., 4 illustrated plates; 17 cm. Original blue clo...
view details
$975
View details
$2,750
Arthur Conan Doyle. Micah Clarke (1889). First edition, signed. Vincent Starrett's copy.
Doyle, Arthur Conan (1859-1930). Micah Clarke, his Statement as Made to his Three Grandchildren, Joseph, Gervas, & Reuben, During the Hard Winter ...
view details
$2,750
View details
$2,000
Robert VAN GULIK. New Year's Eve in Lan-Fang (1958). Judge Dee's rarest case
Van Gulik, Robert. New Year's Eve in Lan-Fang. A Judge Dee Story. Beirut: Imprimerie Catholique, 1958. First edition. 32 pp. A fine, unread copy in c...
view details
$2,000
View details
$1,500
Gabriel GARCÍA-MÁRQUEZ. One Hundred Years of Solitude (1970). First edition
García-Márquez, Gabriel (1927-2014). One Hundred Years of Solitude. New York: Harper & Row, 1970. First edition, with no number line on the last l...
view details
$1,500
View details
$12,000
Ann Williams: 18th century working woman, feminist poet, and scientific martyr
Williams, A[nn] (1745? – 1779). Original Poems and Imitations. London: printed for the author, and sold by W. Harris, 1773. Octavo. Pp. [viii], 191, [...
view details
$12,000
View details
$125
Elinor Wylie. The Orphan Angel (1926). First edition. Speculative fiction featuring Percy Bysshe Shelley in America
Wylie, Elinor (1885-1928). The Orphan Angel. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1926. First edition. Some light water staining to covers: very good or better ...
view details
$125
View details