prestigious African-American poet of her generation, so her conversion in the late 1960s to a radical Black politics was an important endorsement of that position. Her decision to publish only with Black presses restricted the audience for her later work, but it made concrete her commitment to African- American readers and cultural institutions” (ibid.) Octavo. Original black cloth, spine and front cover lettered in gilt on orange ground. With dust jacket. Tiny bump to spine foot and wear to corners, else fresh. A near-fine copy in mildly rubbed and toned dust jacket, shallow chips at fold ends, larger chip at head of rear flap fold, 5 cm closed tear at head of front panel with discreet tape repairs on verso, still very good. £1,350 [161773] 28 BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett. Autograph letter signed with her initials to the American journalist Kate Field. Florence, undated, but c.1860 Looking for a music teacher in Florence An intimate unpublished letter between Elizabeth Barrett and her young mentee, Kate Field. EBB asks Kate to tell her “who is the best Singing=master (to your mind) in this Florence, and what his terms are at lowest; if an engagement is made by the quarter. My husband says ‘not Romani’ - who then? And do you know Aretini’s terms for Italian?” Romani was a renowned Florentine teacher, while Aretini was “well recommended” in an 1861 London-printed traveller’s handbook. Field had arrived in Florence with her uncle and aunt in 1859, with the express intent of finding a voice teacher. Kate Field (1838–1896) was an American journalist, lecturer, playwright, and actress, admired by correspondents such as Anthony Trollope, Charlotte Cushman, Harriet Prescott (Spofford), Susan B. Anthony, and Adelaide Ristori. She met the Brownings in 1859, first in Rome and later in Florence. EBB seems to have taken an immediate liking to her, and Field spent days at a time in Casa Guidi. When EBB died in June 1861, Field was at her graveside, and a week later wrote her obituary for the Atlantic Monthly .
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Commonwealth government, drinking songs in the Anacreontic tradition, an assortment of occasional poems, translations of epigrams from the Greek and Latin, and other translations” ( ODNB ). The first collected edition was published in 1661. Like Brome, EBB was a skilled translator of the Greek poets and a writer of Greek-inspired poems, such as her “Ode to the Swallow”, a paraphrasis of Anacreon’s ode on the same theme. The years 1841 and 1842, coinciding with EBB’s inscription on this copy, were prolific for EBB, who published new poems, translations, and a series of essays on the Greek and English poets in issues of the Athenaeum . Her letters of this period are almost entirely written to her teacher of Greek, Hugh Stuart Boyd; in the letters, EBB frequently talks about her “true love for Greek poetry” (Kenyon, p. 101), and dwells on the meaning and interpretation of Greek words, discussing how to better translate them into English. The works of Brome, and especially the Greek odes, would have been of interest to EBB at this time of intense reflection on the encounter between the English and Greek poetical traditions. The present book would have also been in her library - and perhaps constituting a source of inspiration since Brome was also a noted love poet - when writing her Sonnets from the Portuguese, published in 1850. This copy appeared in the Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge auction of EBB’s son “Pen” Browning’s library, 5 May 1913, as lot 420, noting the same dated signature on the title page (the “old sheep broken” binding was evidently rebound for the buyer at that sale). Small octavo (162 × 104 mm). Twentieth-century green morocco, spine with raised bands, compartments lettered and ruled in gilt, gilt frames on covers, board edges and turn-ins ruled in gilt, orange endpapers, edges gilt. Engraved portrait frontispiece, woodcut floriated initials and headpieces. Twentieth-century bookplate of one Michael James Miscoe to front pastedown, early inscription cancelled from verso of title page. Spine faded to brown, the binding overall firm with the gilt bright, upper edges cut a bit short, without loss of text, intermittent browning and mainly marginal foxing to contents, short closed tear to lower margin of one leaf, otherwise clean. A very good copy, attractively bound. ¶ Frederic G. Kenyon, The Letters Of Elizabeth Barrett Browning , vol. I, 1898. £12,500 [159692]
Field and EBB shared similar views on issues such as progressive politics, abolitionism, and spiritualism. Both EBB’s father and Field’s uncle, Milton Sanford, had made their considerable fortunes by way of slave labour, in Jamaica and the southern States, respectively. EBB’s father disowned her after her marriage, while Field was disinherited by her uncle for siding with the Union in the American Civil War. Spiritualism for EBB was an intensely private affair, not aired in her poetry. Field and the Brownings attended seances with others in their circle, including Anthony Trollope. As a mentor, EBB exercised a considerable influence over Field. According to her biographer, Field told Robert Browning that she looked upon Mrs Browning as her “model and guide” and that she would strive to live a life “worthy of such a teacher.” Provenance: the scrapbook in which this letter was preserved was assembled by a woman from Boston with the surname Mears (possibly “Kitty” Mears); the scrapbook was purchased from a New England dealer in 2020. Single octavo sheet of thin wove paper, approximately 92 × 144 mm, EBB holograph recto, docketed at verso in another hand, sepia coloured ink. Minor ink smudges and discoloration; remnants of glue to margins where formerly the letter was mounted in a scrapbook; still very good. £11,500 [148502] 29 BROWNING, Elizabeth Barrett (her copy) – Alexander BROME. Songs and Other Poems. London: Henry Brome, 1664 from a time when EBB was pursuing comparative study of English and Greek poetical traditions Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s copy of the poems of Alexander Brome, “the English Anacreon”, with her ownership inscription dated 1842 on the title page. This is the second edition, corrected and enlarged by the author, containing numerous new pieces and additional preliminary materials. Between 1640 and 1660, “Brome (1620–1666) composed over 200 poems, including love poems in the cavalier mode, satires attacking the enemies of the king and, later, the
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27 BROOKS, Gwendolyn. A Street in Bronzeville. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1945 The bard of Bronzeville: the debut by the “most prestigious African-American poet of her generation” First edition, first printing, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “For Kathy, Sincerely, Gwendolyn Brooks”. It features the admired poems “‘The Sundays of Satin- Legs Smith’, a portrait of a Bronzeville dandy; ‘The Mother’, a bold and compassionate poem about abortion; and two poems that present African-American perspectives on World War II: ‘Negro Hero’ and ‘Gay Chaps at the Bar’” ( ANB ). Brooks was the first Black woman to hold the post of poetry consultant to the Library of Congress and was the first Black author to win the Pulitzer Prize. “She was the most
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All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
LOUDER THAN WORDS
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