(#137510) SAD TALES AND GLAD TALES; By Reginald Reverie [pseudonym]. Grenville Mellen, "Reginald Reverie."

SAD TALES AND GLAD TALES; By Reginald Reverie [pseudonym]. Boston: S. G. Goodrich, 141 Washington Street, 1828. 12mo, pp. [i-v] vi [1] 2-185 [186: blank] [note leaf 1* and leaf 16* are single tipped in leaves], flyleaves at front and rear, original drab boards with purple cloth shelf back, printed paper label affixed to spine panel, all edges untrimmed. First edition. Grenville Mellen (1799-1841), lawyer, author, born in Biddeford (now in the State of Maine), contributed poems, prose sketches and tales to the UNITED STATES LITERARY GAZETTE and to the literary annuals, THE ATLANTIC SOUVENIR and THE LEGENDARY. SAD TALES AND GLAD TALES, Mellen's first and only collection of prose sketches and stories, "is interesting chiefly as pioneer work leading up to the short story as later developed by Hawthorne and Poe. His tales show the influence of Irving, but are more diffuse, sentimental, and mystifying." - DAB. According to Locke (Voyages in Space [2011] V564), "The Meeting of the Planets" is "a literary satire in which the planets and stars are given personalities and discourse among themselves"; while "The Tale of an Aeronaut" concerns a balloonist who "ascends into space and drifts among the planets and comets listening in on their conversations, including the Moon plotting against Earth, before returning to Earth to find himself over the Battle of Waterloo." Foley, p. 194. Wright (I) 1859. Free endpapers removed, cloth a bit sunned, boards rubbed at edges and lightly spotted and soiled, a very good copy. (#137510).

Price: $1,000.00

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