(LITERATURE) Frances Ellen Watkins Harper Sketches of Southe

Sale 2562 - Lot 262

Price Realized: $ 2,125

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000

(LITERATURE.) Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Sketches of Southern Life. 58 pages. 12mo, original printed wrappers, stained, moderate wear, front wrapper coming detached; intermittent foxing, minimal dampstaining, minor wear to contents; the author's Philadelphia address inscribed on the inner front wrapper, signature of early owner C.C. Crosby of Garnavillo, Iowa on front wrapper. Philadelphia: Merrihew & Son, 1886

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Third edition. Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911) was an active abolitionist in the 1850s, and became one of the first Black women to reach prominence in literature. Many of the poems in this collection relate to Reconstruction; also included is a short story, "Shalmanezer, Prince of Cosman." "Mrs. Harper's verse is frankly propagandist, a metrical extension of her life dedicated to the welfare of others. She believed in art for humanity's sake"--Joan Sherman, Invisible Poets: Afro-Americans of the Nineteenth Century, page 67. This edition not listed in Porter, North American Negro Poets, page 43; one copy of this edition listed in OCLC, at Temple University. No copies of any edition traced at auction since 2004. Provenance: Caroline C. Gibbs Crosby (1831-1909), whose husband James O. Crosby (1828-1921) was a prominent Iowa attorney and advocate for "education of the negro" according to his obituary; purchased by the consignor at a Crosby family estate sale, 2016.