THE LOVER'S GIFT;; or Tributes to the Beautiful. American series. Edited by ...
Hartford: Henry S. Parsons, 1848. First Edition. 12mo, pp. xii, [13]-128, Illustrated with engraved frontispiece. AEG. Bound in faded, gilt stamped publisher's cloth with a one inch tear to the spine. Some foxed, a very good copy. BAL volume 7, page 142. Item #51746
Smith (1806-1893) was born in Maine and is remembered as a novelist, lyceum lecturer, woman's right's reformer and contributor to popular periodicals of her day. She was married to newspaper editor Seba Smith and began to write following the reversal of his financial affairs. A minor fixture in the New York literary scene, she became friendly with Poe, Bryant, Margaret Fuller and others. After hearing Frances Wright lecture, she became active in the woman's rights movement, wrote for Horace Greely and published her "Woman and Her Needs" in 1851. She was one of the earliest women to join the lyceum circuit and made annual speaking tours. She contributed to Paulina Wright Davis' "Una" and wrote pamphlets on dress reform and marriage.
This is a collection of romantic poems by a diverse selection of writers. Smith includes her poems: "Womanly Love" and "Absence", "The Wife" as well as work by Bryant, Willis, Whittier, Longfellow, Benjamin, Poe, Simms, Hewett and Sigourney. Smith added a five page preface to the work.
Price: $400.00 save 20% $320.00