An Elegiac Poem on the death of George Whitefield

Starting price
$ 10 000
Auction dateClassic
15.06.2023 10:00UTC -04:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
USA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 967551
Lot 2 | An Elegiac Poem on the death of George Whitefield
An Elegiac Poem on the death of George Whitefield

Phillis Wheatley Peters, 1771

WHEATLEY PETERS, Phillis (c.1753-1784) and Ebenezer PEMBERTON (1705-1777). Heaven the Residence of the Saints. A Sermon Occasioned by the sudden and much lamented Death of the Rev. George Whitefield… to which is added An Elegiac Poem on his Death, by Phillis, a Negro Girl. London: for E. and C. Dilley, 1771.



Phillis Wheatley Peters's first published poem, early English edition. Phillis composed the present work at the age of 17 to commemorate the death of the Evangelical preacher George Whitefield, who had traveled in North America during the Great Awakening and was the chaplain of Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon. Hastings would later be inspired by this poem to become Phillis's patron, financing her first book of poetry (see preceding lot).



The printing history of this text is complex; her early bibliographer Heartman writes that it "has been reprinted quite a bit, oftener perhaps than we know of." It was certainly issued numerous times in Boston in 1770, the year of Whitefield's death, including as a broadside—but some of the recorded editions may be bibliographic ghosts, and many extant copies exist as singletons and are in poor condition with missing imprints. The first edition of Pemberton's sermon for Whitefield, printed in Boston, did not contain Wheatley Peters's poem; it was added for this London edition. Sabin 59606; ESTC T79049; Heartman VIII.



Octavo (204 x 138mm). 31 pp., 1 p. advert on recto of final page (title remargined at gutter, a bit of dustsoiling). 19th-century plum quarter morocco with marbled boards (worn at extremities). Provenance: William Sumner Appleton, 1840-1903 (bookplate).

Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
20 Rockefeller Plaza
10020 New York
USA
Preview
15.06.2023
Phone +1 212 636 2000
Fax +1 212 636 4930
Email
Conditions of purchaseConditions of purchase
Shipping Postal service
Courier service
pickup by yourself
Payment methods Wire Transfer
Business hoursBusiness hours
Mo 09:30 – 17:00   
Tu 09:30 – 17:00   
We 09:30 – 17:00   
Th 09:30 – 17:00   
Fr 09:30 – 17:00   
Sa closed
Su closed

More from Creator

"Farewell to America"
"Farewell to America"
$7 000
Death notice for Phillis Peters, formerly Phillis Wheatley
Death notice for Phillis Peters, formerly Phillis Wheatley
$3 000
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
$20 000
"Phillis Wheatley's Poems," a review of Margaretta Matilda Odell's Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley
"Phillis Wheatley's Poems," a review of Margaretta Matilda Odell's Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley
$1 000

Related terms