Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth | First edition, first state of Evangeline, the Blair copy

The Passion of American Collectors: Property of Barbara and Ira Lipman

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

Evangeline, A Tale of Arcadie. Boston: William Ticknor & Company, 1847

8vo (184 x 116 mm). 4-page publisher's catalogue dated October 1, 1847 at beginning, early inscription to flyleaf; offsetting from booklabel, a few light spots. Plain publisher's boards with printed paper label to spine; backstrip detatched from upper cover, light shelf wear, hinge starting. Housed in a folding cloth case. Two fragments of a letter from the firm Thomas J. Gannon, Inc. (probably 1940s) offering the copy laid in. 

First edition, first state, with the intact type ("Long") at 61:1

Very shortly after printing began, the "ng" of Long dropped out of the plate, and the word was erroneously printed as "Lo" until it was corrected in the fifth edition. Only about ten copies in this first state are known. 

PROVENANCE

Mrs. John Insley Blair (Blairhame booklabel)

REFERENCE

BAL 12089; Wilson 224