?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(MAINE.) William H. Harris. Charmingly illustrated diary of a young man in rural Maine. [95], [32], [22] manuscript diary pages including approximately 85 pencil illustrations. Tall 8vo, 11 1/4 x 5 1/4 inches, original cloth-backed wrappers, minor wear, plus 32 loose leaves, 8 1/2 x 7 inches, formerly bound in a looseleaf notebook, plus 22 loose leaves, 9 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches; minor wear, final leaf defective. Mercer, ME, 25 December 1889 to 5 October 1890
During the period of this amusingly illustrated diary, William Henry Harris (1856-1934) lived in rural Mercer, Maine with his father, stepmother, and three teenaged half-sisters: Josie, Jennie, and Ada. It was a hard-working family: they grew potatoes, gathered maple syrup, and Will and his father manufactured shoes in their home workshop as piecework for a nearby factory. Will, at least, appeared to be well-educated. His diary entries are literate, witty, and in a tidy hand. It would be a more-than-usually charming rural diary even if he was not an accomplished amateur artist.
The family seems to have been loving and filled with affectionate teasing and humor. Will's young sisters often commandeered the diary to add their own mocking entries when Will was unable to write--or when he failed to secure the diary properly. On 25 January 1890, the diary reads in a new hand "Joined the Salvation Army," next to which Will has added neat labels explaining "Jo's work. A lie." He teased his sisters with a caricature and poem for falling bedridden from the grippe. When he in turn fell too ill to write from 3 to 5 February 1890, the three sisters each took a turn with sarcastic comments on his invalid state in the diary. Will's efforts to grow a beard were subject to regular mockery. On 22 March 1890, Josie drew a crude portrait of him, writing in his voice: "My whiskers thrive well. It is the joy of my life to stroke my beard, but when the soft down completely covers my noble breast, then will this life be a success." Will then expresses indignation and vows "I will have my revenge."
The art is what makes this diary truly special. Harris was a skilled amateur, and the bound diary contains 65 pencil drawings (large and small) over the course of 157 days. Highlights include his father fiddling with a friend (16 March), the sisters mourning their dead lamb (27 March), his youngest sister on stilts (12 April), his mother and aunt walking through the mud (20 April), the burning house of a neighbor (22 April), catching the first sucker fish or mullet of the season (24 April), a family feast of suckers (2 May), and the family waiting in turn to be weighed on the potato scale in their barn (12 May). The loose diary leaves include 22 drawings, including the family's cows being turned out (31 May 1890), a family picnic atop nearby Mount Phillip (8 June), the shaving of his beard (30 June), and hoeing his garden (4 July).
In 1892, shortly after the period of this diary, Harris married and moved a few miles east to Wilton, Maine. They had no children, and he worked as a laster at the Bass & Co. shoe factory for 36 years. We have found no reference to any training or employment as an artist.
With--a photograph of a seated man, quite possibly Harris. The image is circa 1900, and this is a later mid-20th century copy print, 8 x 6 1/4 inches.
