WHITTIER, John Greenleaf (1807-1892). Snow-bound. A Winter Idyl. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1866.

Clasp, Angel of the backword look
And folded wings of ashen gray
And voice of echoes far away,
The brazen covers of thy book;
The weird palimpsest old and vast,
Wherein thou hid’st the spectral past;

The very fine Bradley Martin copies of both issues of the first edition of the poem which made Whittier famous, with two autograph letters to his publisher discussing the work. The family in Snow-bound, who pass the time by recounting tales of New England life, was based on Whittier's own relations. Its evocation of a tough yet touching rural domesticity and nostalgia for the past in the wake of the Civil War made it a runaway success, surpassing all expectations. In one of the letters here, Whittier self-deprecatingly comments to his publisher: “I am amazed at what thee say about the sale of ‘Snow Bound.’ It must be that each one who parts with his [money] for it finds he is humbugged & has a malicious satisfaction in getting his neighbor into the same predicament by recommending it.” BAL 21862.

Two volumes, octavo (170 x 110mm). Half-titles, portrait frontispiece with tissue guard, wood-engraved vignettes on title and first text leaf, copy 1 first issue with pagination on final page, copy two second issue without pagination on final page (faint offsetting on title). Original terracotta and blue cloth with title gilt on front cover (a little wear to caps, second issue with some sunning to spine); both volumes in modern chemises together in morocco pull-off case. Provenance: Charles Albert Horne (bookplate in first series) – Frank Maier (bookplate in first series) – Frank Brewer Bemis (bookplate in both volumes) – Harold Greenhill (bookplate in both volumes) – H. Bradley Martin (bookplate in chemises of both volumes; his sale, Sotheby's New York, 31 January 1990, lot 2275). Two autograph letters signed (“John G. Whittier” and “JGW”) by Whittier to Fields, 16 February 1866 and 21 February 1866, 3pp. and 4pp, are tipped to the flyleaf of second issue.