Her earliest surviving poem - photo 1
Her earliest surviving poem - photo 2

Her earliest surviving poem

Lot 55
15.06.2023 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
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$ 25 200
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
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ID 967639
Lot 55 | Her earliest surviving poem
Estimate value
$ 20 000 – 30 000
Her earliest surviving poem

Harriet Beecher Stowe, ca 1825

[STOWE,] Harriet Beecher (1811-1896). Autograph manuscript, "Description of the twelve Months of the Year / A New Year's Dream," [Hartford,] ca 1825.



Four pages, 250 x 198mm comprising 144 lines of text with several emendations and corrections in her hand (old paper repairs reinforcing weak folds, toning and mild foxing). Endorsed on the left margin at a later date in an unknown hand, ("By Harriet Beecher now Mrs. Stowe - written at the age of fourteen").



Harriet Beecher Stowe's earliest extant literary manuscript—written at age fourteen. In 1824 Harriet Beecher entered the Hartford Female Seminary—recently established by her older sister Catharine. She immediately threw herself into her studies, translating Ovid from the original Latin in her first year. She also showed an early interest in poetry. "'…it was my dream to be a poet … I filled blank book after blank book,'" until her sister Catharine "'pounced down upon me, and said that I must not waste my time writing poetry, but discipline my mind by the study of Butler's 'Analogy'" The present 144-line poem was evidently a product of that early effort cut short by her sister. The poem offers a New Year's vision of the coming year employing language resembling Coleridge's "Kubla Khan," in which she descends into a vast cavern, with "brilliant walls of crystal clear, / And many a sparkling gem to earth unknown, " with a "glittering roof" and "emerald drapery." There, she meets the "twelve daughters of the rolling year," each representing a month, from "Fair flowery May, with graceful step mature, / And slender fragile form, and smiling mien, to November, with her "mournful air, "drooping form," and faded robe. Nearly 25 years later, Stowe published this early work under a new title, "The Twelve Months, A New Year's Dream," for the literary annual, The Christian Keepsake for 1849. The present manuscript bears numerous corrections, most of which are reflected in the published version, though it appears that Stowe made further revisions after revisiting this manuscript. Rare. Original autograph manuscripts by Stowe are extremely rare in the market. RBH records three examples appearing at auction in the past fifty years.

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