[WHEATLEY PHILLIS] To be Sold at the Printing Office (embell

Sale 2068 - Lot 372

Price Realized: $ 2,990

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

Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500

[WHEATLEY, PHILLIS.] "To be Sold at the Printing Office (embellished with a plate. . .) An Elegiac Poem On the Death of that Celebrated Divine, and Eminent Sevant of Jesus Christ, the Rev. George Whitefield by Phillis, a Servant Girl of 17 Years of Age, Belonging to Mr. J. Wheatley of Boston:---She has been but 9 years in this country from Africa. . ." An advertisement within a ruled box, 31/2x25/8 inches. Beneath this is the following advertisement "Runaway from the Subscriber, last Friday A Negro Man named Pompey. . ." And on the third page, there is an advertisement for the sale of a 19 year old woman. [in] The Essex Gazette. October, 1770. Single folio sheet, folded to form four pages; split in the center, where folded; paper evenly toned. Boston, 1770

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Additional Details

This advertisement announces the sale of the first printing of any poem by any African-American. Wheatley's Elegiac Poem went through several printings within 1770. In 1773, following an ocean voyage to England, Phillis Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects was published in London. The only edition of her poems to appear during her lifetime.