HOLMES, Oliver Wendell (1809-1894) Autograph manuscript signed ("Oliver Wendell Holmes"), including excerpts from the original manuscript [n.p., but ca. 1846] and a fair copy of another portion "Urania: A Rhymed Lesson." [n.p.] 1893.

Three pages, the first two: 247 x 195mm, and the final: 255 x 197mm. With two engraved portraits, and a printed copy of the complete poem. Inlaid into larger sheets and bound in blue morocco gilt, watered white silk liners.

A portion of the original manuscript for "Urania." The first excerpt, comprising two pages (paginated 5 and 6) is apparently from a working manuscript, with several corrections; it begins with the lines "O could such mockery reach our soul indeed..." and ends "Full to thine ear it bears the Father's word..." The second excerpt, a fair copy of later vintage, begins "The air is hushed, the street is holy ground..." and ends "But tears still follow as they breathe along..." Holmes first read this long narrative poem before the Mercantile Library Association on 14 October 1846; it was subsequently published in Boston (BAL, 8745). Provenance: The Philip M. Neufeld Collection (sale, Christie's, New York, 25 April 1995, lot 176).