Artman, Wm.; Hall, L. V. Beauties and Achievements of the Blind. Auburn, [NY]: Published for the Authors | W. J. Moses, 1865. [8441]
Black publisher's cloth, boards blind-stamped, gilt to spine, 5 1/2 x 7 3/4 inches, spine ends & corners frayed. Pink end papers, private & institutional bookplates, the historical society bookplate is dated 1885 and stamped "withdrawn." Frontispiece wood engraving presumably of the authors, by N. Orr of NYC. 387 generally clean and bright pp., a few with some small smudges. Tight. Good. Hardcover.
Begins with Memoirs of Eminent Blind Authors, including Homer, Ossian, Milton, Rev. Richard Lucas, Miss Frances Brown, Miss Frances Jane Crosby (Fanny Crosby), Daphne S. Giles, and Alice Holmes. Then achievements of the blind grouped under the Learned Professions, Industrial Pursuits, and Poetry and Music. An Autobiographical Sketch of Lemuel Rockwell follows, and lastly (about 60 pp.), Collected Poems, by L. V. Hall and other Blind Authors.
The Introduction relates a little information about the authors. They were both about twenty-five years of age, both born in Western New York; Artman lost his sight at the age of eighteen, Hall was born blind. They were both educated at the New York Institution for the blind, "and have for the last four or five years been endeavoring to force a subsistence from nature and society, in various, and of course honorable, occupations."