THE LAST NIGHT OF POMPEII; A POEM: AND LAYS AND LEGENDS. New York: Printed by Elliott and Palmer, 20 William-Street, 1832. Octavo, pp. [i-iii] iv-vii [viii] [9] 10-309 [310-312: blank], flyleaves at front and rear, original terra cotta boards with purple cloth shelf back, printed paper label affixed to spine panel. First edition. Includes a novella, "Walter Colebrooke -- a Tale," pp. 239-300, a Gothic story very much in the vein of Hawthorne and Poe. Sumner Lincoln Fairfield (1803-1844) is a tragic figure in early American literature; a penniless poet, abused as a youth, and subject -- as were his children -- to bouts of madness. His greatest work, "The Last Night of Pompeii," was used as an unacknowledged source by Bulwer-Lytton. (Fairfield charged Bulwer with plagiarism, an assertion certainly partially true.) Fairfield died young, attended only by his mother, in New Orleans. BAL 5593. Wright (I) 926. A good bit of the paper spine label missing, corners of boards lightly worn, a very good copy overall, in the earliest binding. (#149853).
Price: $250.00
No statement of printing.