POEMS, DRAMATIC AND MISCELLANEOUS

Warren, Mercy Otis

Published by I. Thomas and E.T. Andrews, Boston, 1790

252pp. 12mo. Handsomely bound in antique- style calf, boards ruled in gilt, spine richly gilt, gilt leather label. Early library bookplate on front pastedown, two ink ownership inscriptions on front free endpaper. Toning around edges of titlepage, text with moderate, even tanning. Occasional foxing. Very good. First and only edition of this significant collection of early American verse and two plays, by Mercy Otis Warren. Best known for her pioneering history of the American Revolution, the present collection is dedicated to George Washington, who had been inaugurated as President the previous year. Mercy Otis Warren was the younger sister of revolutionary theorist James Otis, the wife of Patriot leader James Warren, and a friend of John and Abigail Adams. Her interest in political affairs is evident in this collection, which contains several poems and two long tragedies. In the AMERICAN NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY, Winfred Bernhard writes that the plays, entitled THE SACK OF ROME and THE LADIES OF CASTILE, "depict the triumph of misrule and the failure of the champions of liberty [and] must be seen as reflective of Warren's increasing doubts about the viability of the American republican experiment. While both plays suffer from conventionality, the interweaving of gender politics with the rise and fall of states make them more challenging reading for modern sensibilities than the occasional poems that comprise the rest of the volume." EVANS 23035. STODDARD & WHITESELL 424 WEGELIN (POETRY) 417. WEGELIN (PLAYS), p.78. ESTC W28913 SABIN 101486. ANB 22, pp.728-29. Seller Inventory # WRCAM53075

Bibliographic Details

Title: POEMS, DRAMATIC AND MISCELLANEOUS
Publisher: I. Thomas and E.T. Andrews, Boston
Publication Date: 1790