JIM BLUDSO OF THE PRAIRIE BELLE. AND LITTLE BREECHES. Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, Late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., 1871. 12mo, pp. [1-6] 7-23 [24: blank], eight full page illustrations by S. Eytinge, Jr., orange wrappers printed in black, sewn. First edition. Two of Hay's very popular Pike County ballads published just a bit before PIKE COUNTY BALLADS, AND OTHER PIECES, which is advertised as "nearly ready" on the back wrapper. Hay's first book, preceded by earlier broadsides, sheet music and work collected in books by others. "The new literature of the period was influenced more by the PIKE COUNTY BALLADS than by [Bret Harte's] EAST AND WEST POEMS. The ballads were something new in literature, something certainly not Bostonian, certainly not English -- something that could be described only as 'Western,' fresh, independent, as the Pike himself was new and independent among the types of humanity. John Hay was therefore a pioneer, a creator, a leader. His was one of the those rare germinal minds that appear now and then to break into new regions and to scatter seed from which others are to reap the harvest." - Pattee, A History of American Literature Since 1870, p. 91. John Hay (1838-1905), a career diplomat, served as Lincoln's secretary during the Civil War. BAL 7739. Merle Johnson, High Spots of American Literature, p. 39. Wrappers dusty, a very good copy. (#164558).
Price: $150.00
No statement of printing.