Lanier, Sidney. Poems [signed by Henry Wysham Lanier]

Lanier, Sidney. Poems [signed by Henry Wysham Lanier]. Philadelphia & London: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1877. [5711]

Green cloth with beveled edges, bright gilt titles to spine and front cover, emblem in blind to back cover indicating binding state A. 7 x 4 3/4 inches, chocolate end papers, tidemarks on end papers, at the top of the hinges front and back; none on any pages within, faint on the binding itself.

Inscription on ffep: "To John S. Mayfield, Henry W. Lanier, October 25, 1933." Then in Mayfield's hand, "John S. Mayfield, New York City, 1 November 1933." Round bookseller's blindstamp beneath imprint, we believe contemporary with publication, "Isaac Hammond | Book Seller | Charleston, N. C." 94 clean pp., tight. Note by Mayfield in pencil on rfep: "This book was published October or November 1876." Very good.

Signed by the author Henry Wysham Lanier (1873-1958), the son of Sidney Lanier.

BAL 11249; binding state A.

The first edition of Lanier's Poems, which one him wide acclaim and let to his appointment as lecturer at Johns Hopkins University. This copy once owned by John S. Mayfield, bibliophile and sometime curator of Rare Books & Manuscripts at Syracuse University. Mayfield was an avid collector of Lanier, wrote about Lanier's sojourn in Texas, and contributed materials to the Johns Hopkins Press multi-volume edition of Lanier's Letters.

Sidney Clopton Lanier (1842-1881), b. Macon, GA; d. Lynn, NC. Lanier was an "American musician and poet whose verse often suggests the rhythms and thematic development of music. Lanier was reared by devoutly religious parents in the traditions of the Old South." - Encyclopedia Britannica. He served in the Confederate Signal Corps, was captured and imprisoned at Point Lookout, Maryland wherein he contracted tuberculosis, the disease which shortened his life. His poetry is noted for its use of dialect, reflecting the "cracker" and "negro" dialects of his day. He was a member of the faculty of Johns Hopkins University appointed in 1879, specializing in the works of the English novelists and poets.