Sarah Josepha Hale, 1830

[HALE, Sarah Josepha (1788-1879).] "Mary's Lamb." In: The Juvenile Miscellany. Vol. 5. Boston: Putnam & Hunt, 1830.

The first appearance of "Mary Had a Little Lamb." The Blairhame copy. Later in 1830, Hale would include the poem in her collection Poems for Our Children. Hale was a compelling character; see the following lot for a description. Ref. the Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes.

12mo (140 x 85mm). Engraved frontispiece (lightly offset to title). Contemporary red half sheep over marbled boards, spine gilt (spine darkened and shipped at head, lower joint cracked through); modern slipcase. Provenance: A.R. Pope of Cambridge, Mass (contemporary printed label) – Natalie Knowlton Insley Blair, 1887-1951, American art and book collector (Blairhame morocco bookplate; her sale, Christie's New York, 14 December 2016, lot 272).