CLARKE, McDonald (1798-1842). Poems. New York: J.W. Bell, 1836.

First edition of the poems of "the mad poet of Broadway," famously eulogized by Walt Whitman. Second issue with "ther" corrected. An eccentric character and fixture of New York's poetry scene, Clarke was known for sleeping in graveyards and imitating Lord Byron. He came to a sad end in a New York prison, and was commemorated by Whitman, upon whom he had a major influence as a mystic personality and outsider artist. Of Clarke's poetry, Whitman wrote that "we always, on perusing Clarke's pieces, felt, in the chambers of the mind within us, a moving and responding, as of harp cords, struck by the wind." Much of his work was published in periodicals or other ephemeral media and is now rare on the market; the last copy recorded at auction by RBH was in 1951. BAL 3300.

Octavo (176 x 111mm). Frontispiece author portrait by Maverick with tissue guard (some foxing at ends). Original cloth, gilt-lettered (joints strengthened, spine sunned, a little wear at extremities). Provenance: "Whit Cross" (partially effaced ownership inscription on front pastedown).