The Culprit Fay and Other Poems
New York: George Dearborn, 1835. 8vo (23.8 x 15 cm). vi, 84 pages. Half-title. Engraved portrait frontispiece by T. Kelly after Rogers, engraved title with a vignette of Cro' Nest above West Point by James Smillie after Robert Weir (dampstained), with tissue guard. Original purple blind-ruled cloth, gilt-decorated at center of each cover, gilt-lettered on spine. Provenance: Miss M. A. Sterling (contemporary gift inscription on title from her brother D. H. Sterling). Front joint split, some staining to cloth, some intermittent foxing. Item #406540
FIRST EDITION. An early American poet considered part of the Knickerbocker group, Drake died of consumption in 1820 at the age of 25. This volume was published posthumously by his daughter. Fitz-Greene Halleck's poem "Green be the turf above thee" was written as a tribute to Drake, and in April 1836, Poe published a review of their work – the so-called "Drake-Halleck Review" – in the Southern Literary Messenger, criticizing both but considering Drake the better of the two. The title poem is Drake's best-known work, and the final poem "The American Flag" was set as a cantata by Antonin Dvorak in 1892-93. BAL 4825.
Price: $125.00