A Fable for Critics.
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1891. Hardcover. Small 8vo. Light green cloth with gilt spine lettering and dark green front board lettering. 101pp, (1p ad). Two-color frontispiece, small line drawings. Very good. Frontispiece is age toned and with expert archival mend along chipped lower edge, else volume is tight and internally quite nice; binding bears lightly shellacked spine with paper shelf label near foot. Item #52698
Decent later printing of the celebrated satirical poem (first published 1848) in which Lowell skewers some of the popular writers of the day, among them Emerson, Bryant, Cooper, Poe and others. Frontispiece is a facsimile of the first edition title page. From the library of Senator William B. Allison (1829-1908), the powerful Iowa Republican, and laid in is the heavy stock 4" X 2½" printed calling card of the constituent who most likely gave him the book: Mrs. G.H. Higbee -- Frances Ann Nealley Higbee (1851-1927), noted civic leader of Burlington, Iowa and wife of millionaire financier George Howell Higbee (1836-1919). Allison, as U.S. senator from Iowa (1873-1908), was one of the "big four" who controlled the Senate; as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee for most of those years, he championed tariff legislation and co-authored the Bland-Allison Act of 1878; as member of the Senate Finance Committee he was often courted by U.S. presidents to hold cabinet positions. Early 20th century bookplate on front pastedown notes "This book is part of Allison Memorial Collection Gift of Mrs. Jennie A. Brayton" and until deaccessioned was part of Allison's non-circulating collection at his hometown public library across the street from his Dubuque residence. According to Leland L. Sage in his 1956 "William Boyd Allison: A Study in Practical Politics," Allison owned "hundreds of books on government, economics, history, banking, finance, and the tariff.... An omnivorous reader, Allison doubtless read most of these volumes, if only for relaxation from the strain that accompanied his efforts to solve the many problems facing the Nation...."
Price: $95.00