"Phillis Wheatley`s Poems," a review of Margaretta Matilda Odell`s Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley

Lot 5
15.06.2023 10:00UTC -05:00
Classic
Starting price
$ 1 000
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUSA, New York
Archive
The auction is completed. No bids can be placed anymore.
Archive
ID 967553
Lot 5 | "Phillis Wheatley's Poems," a review of Margaretta Matilda Odell's Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley
Estimate value
$ 1 000 – 2 000
"Phillis Wheatley's Poems," a review of Margaretta Matilda Odell's Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley

William Snelling, 1834

WHEATLEY PETERS, Phillis (c.1753-1784) – SNELLING, William J. (1804-1848). "Phillis Wheatley's Poems," a review of Margaretta Matilda Odell's Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a native African and a Slave. Dedicated to the Friends of the Africans (1834), published in volume XVI of The Christian Examiner and General Review. Boston: Charles Bowen, 1834.



Review notice of an early biography and reprint of Phillis Wheatley Peters's poems. Wheatley Peters's biography has long been obscured by the inventions and fancies of those seeking to use her life story for their own purposes, creating a legend which is still being untangled today. The anti-slavery Margaretta Matilda Odell claimed to be the grand-niece of John and Susanna Wheatley, and desired to turn her interest in Phillis toward garnering sympathy for her cause—regardless of her actual knowledge of the intimate details of her subject's life. Remarkably, the author of this review manages to introduce even more falsehoods into Wheatley Peters's life story. He places her firmly in the ranks of history's tragic heroines, writing that: "the vicissitudes of Phillis's life ought to excite as much interest as the fate of Lady Jane Gray, or Mary Queen of Scots, or any other heroine, ancient or modern." Robinson 1834.b.2.



Octavo (215 x 137mm). pp. 169-174. Contemporary black half morocco and marbled boards, marbled edges (wear to extremities).

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
An Elegiac Poem on the death of George Whitefield
An Elegiac Poem on the death of George Whitefield
$10 000
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral
$20 000

Related terms