THE NEW WOMAN AND OTHER POEMS. Chicago: C. M. Barnes Company, 253-5 State St., 1896. Octavo, frontispiece (photographic portrait of the author), several other illustrations in the text, original decorated light brown cloth, front panel stamped in dark brown, spine panel stamped in brown and gold, rear panel stamped in blind, floral patterned endpapers. First edition. Presentation inscription by Reverend Robinson in pencil on the front flyleaf. The author's calling card is laid in, as well as a single sheet on which is printed his photograph and a poem, "He Is Risen," dated Easter 1901. The 75-page title poem, written in June 1895, is an attack on the "new woman" of the era, that substitutes the poet's own vision: "Not she, in bloomer briefs displays/Nor dribbles quid of chewing gum;/Nor modest worth with wiles betrays,/ Nor twirls a cigarette where slum/ Matchmates the dude in low-bred craze." His own ideal conservative Christian vision takes another seventy one pages and more than 280 more stanzas to elucidate. Reminds me of the bluegrass song, Brown's Ferry Blues, that begins, "I don't smoke and I don't chew,/ and I don't go with girls that do." Among the other poems later in the book, one rhymes moon and June in the opening lines. Bookplate of Pi Beta Phi on front paste-down. Front free endpaper detached, otherwise this would be a fine copy. (#130245).
Price: $100.00
No statement of printing.