MORTON, Sarah Wentworth Apthorp (1759-1846).] Beacon Hill. A Local Poem, Historic and Descriptive. Boston: Printed by Manning & Loring for the Author, 1797.

Rare poem by the "American Sappho" on the American Revolution. First edition, uncut. Book I was the only one ever published. Sarah Wentworth Apthorp Morton was called "the American Sappho" by her contemporaries and considered one of the finest female poets of the 18th century—she was long thought to be the author of The Power of Sympathy, now attributed to William Hill Brown. "Beacon Hill," written in heroic couplets and influenced by Milton and Gray, was dedicated to "the Citizen-Soldiers who fought, conquered, and retired, under the banners of Washington and Freedom." Unfortunately, the ambitious epic never saw completion. Stoddard & Whitesell note that the "expansive, marginous size of the leaf [...] marks this as a very stylish production by the Boston Bluestocking, one that might fit quite nicely on a shelf of London poems of the day." Morton's other work included Quabi; or, The Virtues of Nature (1790). Rare: the last copy recorded in RBH sold in 1968. Evans 32512; Sabin 51025; Stoddard & Whitesell 581; Wegelin p. 56 (erroneously noting a frontispiece).

Quarto (270 x 212mm). Uncut, sewn. Half-title, dedication leaf, and apology; 4 pp. notes at rear (small neat repairs along center crease and outer margin of preliminary leaves). Modern pale green wrappers. Provenance: Margaret Rogers (deleted inscription to title) – Sarah Rogers (deleted inscription to title).