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In Very Good condition. Marbled paper over boards quarterbound in brown calf. Calf corners. Octavo. Beautifully marbled endpapers. 340pps., plus a frontispiece of the subject and an illustration of Licea. There is modest rubbing to the boards, but with considerable wear to the corners and the spine -- particularly to the heel of the spine, which is partially chipped away. Light foxing in the area of the endpapers. The text is, overall, in very good+ condition, clean and bright. The binding is square and tight with both hinges sound. On the second fep is a notation stating that this item is from the library of Stephen Van Rensselaer, Last of the Patroons. Fifth in direct descent from Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, the first Patroon, Van Rensselaer inherited a vast landed estate in Rensselaer and Albany counties, New York, at age 5. He graduated from Harvard and spent time in state government and as a member of the U.S. Congress (1822 - 1829). His chief services to the state, however, were economic and educational. He was a member of the Erie Canal commissions and president of the state's first board of agriculture. He was a lenient landlord for 3,000 tenants and was founder and supporter of a wide variety of social, educational, business, and governmental institutions. Quite an interesting item, a volume of poems collected and published by Spence from the papers of a deceased friend and compatriot under sail. With the quality of its interior, this would be a highly presentable item should it be rebacked and the corners recovered (which, though unneccesary, can be arranged through us at the buyer's discretion). ".The following poems are the juvenile effusions of an ardent and glowing mind, under the influence of a romantic and unhappy attachment. The author of them, the lamented victim of feeling, and the slave of that passion he has with such delicacy delineated, in his last moments bequeathed them to me, as memorials of an affection, which existing under more propitious circumstances, and unopposed by considerations of consequence in the conjugal union, might, perhaps, at this day have rendered him the living pride of his connexions, an ornament to society, the tender and endearing husband, the warm and faithful friend. It is unnecessary, at this time, to enter into a minute biographical account of my deceased friend. In the preface of a poem, now under my inspection, entitled the 'Siege of Tripoli,' I shall furnish a copious and more satisfactory delineation of his life. At the present, it will be sufficient to remark that he was a native of the United States; that his profession was that of a soldier; that his life was wildly desultory, and, from peculiar allotment, chequered with that variety of interesting vicissitudes, and diffluent occurrences, which we frequently find incidental to the career of a military man, embarking, at an early period of youth, on the capricious ocean of life, and, like the bark in its fluctuating element, destined through its disastrous voyage to buffet the rebelling billows and the adverse gale of fortune. On the banks of a stream which meanders through the picturesque part of the country in which he was born, on a fair evening in May, he met the lovely Licea. He was then entering into his sixteenth year." Purchase with confidence: all books, gradings, and descriptions are rendered the care of a genuine bibliophile. Satisfaction guaranteed or all costs you've incurred will be promptly refunded. Thanks for your interest in Nooks Of Books. To assist with your decision, photos, comprehensive, can be emailed upon request. Seller Inventory # 204-3916
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