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Constance Fenimore Woolson's First Separate Publication?

WOOLSON, CONSTANCE FENIMORE.

Plum's Picture [caption title].

Place and Imprint: N.p., n.d. [but probably Cleveland, Ohio, 1871].
Edition: First edition.
Bibliographical References: Not found in BAL or OCLC; no copy found in trade or at auction.
Condition: Creased from folding, short tear in the lower margin; in fine condition.
Book ID: 28959

Physical Description

Single sheet folded to make four 21 x 13 cm pages, text on page one only; pages 2-4 are blank.

Comments

A rare early work by Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840-1894) - very likely her first separate appearance in print - a poem in three 12-line stanzas written to her niece, Claire Rathborn Benedict (1868-1961), a.k.a. "Plum." Claire's father and Woolson’s brother-in-law, George Stone Benedict, had tragically died in a train accident in early 1871. A service was held at which an elaborate 82-page memorial volume was distributed that contained obsequies by his friends and fellow employees at the Cleveland Herald, and included an account of the accident, and an elegy to him entitled “In Memoriam G.S.B. February 6, 1871” by Constance Fenimore Woolson. See BAL 23444. At about that same time Woolson wrote this poem, "Plum's Picture," which was printed in this attractive format. It celebrates the charming presence of Benedict’s young daughter amidst the sorrow over the death of her father: "O, darling Plum, your three short years / Have held a charm to dry the tears / of many mourning hearts, - / When dark the life, and deep the grief, / No words, no help, bring the relief / That baby-love imparts," and it ends with "We love you best because you were / His darling little Plum." This poem was collected in The Benedicts Abroad, edited by Claire Benedict (London, 1931, see BAL 23480), but this original publication is not recorded. Woolson wrote and published several poems in periodicals prior to her first work of fiction, but she resisted efforts to collect for she did not think of herself as a poet.

Price: $750.00