HOLMES, Oliver Wendell, Sr. (1809-1894). Soundings from the Atlantic. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1864.

Presentation copy to friend and fellow fireside poet James Russell Lowell—an excellent New England literary association. Inscribed by the author to Lowell: "from his friend O.W.H." This volume contains a selection of Holmes's essays originally published in The Atlantic Monthly, which Lowell edited. They shared commitments not only to poetry and writing (both were also members of the Dante Club) but to abolitionism, bonds forged over a long friendship. Holmes wrote a poem to Lowell on his 70th birthday, beginning: "A health to him whose double wreath displays / The critic’s ivy and the poet’s bays." BAL 8829.

12mo (182 x 114mm). Title page printed in black and red. Ad leaf at beginning, 22pp. publishers' catalogue at end dated November 1863. Original purple cloth with brown coated endpapers (spine faded); modern chemise and half morocco slipcase. Provenance: James Russell Lowell, 1819-1891 (presentation inscription on title; by descent to:) – Francis Lowell Brown, MD / Elmwood 1912 (inscription on flyleaf).