Poems on various subjects, religious and moral. /
A collection of 39 poems written by Phillis Wheatley, the first published African-American woman poet.
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
London: : [Boston, Massachusetts] :
Printed for A. Bell, bookseller, Aldgate; ; and sold by Messrs. Cox and Berry, King-Street, Boston.,
M DCC LXXIII. [1773]
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| Series: | Early American imprints.
no. 50065. |
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| Online Access: | View a selection of digital images in the Beinecke Library's Digital Images Online database http://digilib.nypl.org/dynaweb/digs/wwm9728/ |
| Summary: | A collection of 39 poems written by Phillis Wheatley, the first published African-American woman poet. |
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| Item Description: | This record actually represents 2 editions distinguished by Stoddard, not distinguished in other sources (including ESTC as of June 2019): "There are two editions, two states of the portrait, and many variants. ... Edition 2 (entry 237) is a line-for-line resetting (with minor textual variants) of Edition 1 (entry 236), except that pp. [iv]-[vii] appear to be in identical setting. The two editions can be easily distinguished by the imprint spacing and the direction of the chainlines." For further distinguishing details, see Stoddard, who records only 3 copies of Edition 2 among the many copies examined. The vertical distance between the "London" and "Printed" lines is 3 mm in Edition 1, 6 mm in Edition 2. In Edition 1 the chainlines in gatherings [A], O-Q are vertical, horizontal in B-N; in Edition 2, all chainlines are vertical. Publisher's advertisements: page [128]. Collation (both editions): 8vo: [A]⁴ B-Q⁴ [$2 signed]; 64 leaves, pages [i-iv] v [vi-viii], [9] 10-124 [125-128] + engraved frontispiece. In Edition 1, the copyright statement may read either "Stationer's" or "Stationers"; in Edition 2, only the latter. Likewise in Edition 1, the advertisements on the final page are found in one of two wholly different settings (referred to as "states" by Stoddard): A, headed "Lately published, (price 5s. sewed) ... ", or B, headed "Lately published in 2 vols. twelves, (Price 5s. sewed) ... "; in Edition 2, only B is found. With an engraved frontispiece portrait, "Published ... Septr. 1st, 1773 by Archd. Bell, bookseller no. 8 near the Saracens Head Aldgate." Unsigned, but has been attributed in some sources to the artist Scipio Moorhead; found in earlier and later states, the latter re-worked to stengthen some lines--see Stoddard. First edition; cf. Afro-Americana, 1553-1906 (Philadelphia: Library Co.), number 11111; Negro history, 1553-1903 (Philadelphia. Library Co.), number 194; and The Negro in the United States, by Dorothy B. Porter, number 1284. The second and third Cushing Library/Rare Books copies were acquired as part of the Lois Goddard Morrison Collection of Eighteenth Century Literature. Both of the Morrison Collection copies have an additional 2 pages of advertising at the end. One of the Cushing Library/Rare Books/Morrison copies is signed by the author on the title page verso, has a newspaper clipping and sales catalogue entry affixed to the front fly-leaf, and came in a modern slipcase. One of the Cushing Library/Rare Books/Morrison copies has a bookplate of former San Antonio mayor Walter W. McAllister attached to inside front cover, came in a modern folder, and contains a page from a vendor's catalogue advertising Wheatley's poem on the death of Rev. George Whitefield (this poem appears on pages 22-24). |
| Physical Description: | v, [4], 10-124 pages, [4] pages, [1] leaf of plates : portrait (engraving) ; 18 cm (octavo) |
| Place of Publication: | Great Britain -- England -- London. |