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Vol. 12, No. 1 (July 5, 1834) to No. 52 (June 27, 1835). Small folio. VG-, hinges and tips worn, bound in contemporary leather and marbled boards. Contents VG+ with considerable foxing. Title page and index bound in. The Mirror was an eight-page weekly containing literary criticism, poetry, book reviews, theater notices, commentary, letters from abroad, and a piece of music with words and notes on the last page of each issue. Articles in this volume are devoted to New York University; Cure of an Opium-Eater; Wilson, the Ornithologist; the Witches of Lancashire of 1612; Charles Lamb on Modern Gallantry; English Writers of America by Washington Irving; two poems by William Cullen Bryant; and more. In addition to an engraved title page, and woodcuts sprinkled through the text, the magazine features five full-page engraved plates: the Washington Monument at Baltimore; the presidents of the United States; a portrait of comedian George Hill; a view of Washington s headquarters at Newburgh, NY; and Evening A Scene in the Highlands, NY. What makes this volume special is the first printing in the November 29, 1834 issue of The Olden Time, signed W, the first published piece by Walt Whitman, at the time just fifteen years old. The essay is not cited by Myerson, though he refers to a possible Whitman work in The Mirror in 1835 as not seen (Myerson I3). In the three-paragraph piece Whitman talks about how though New York City may feel civilized, there were still likely people around who conversed with men who once saw the present great metropolitan city as a little dorp or village. He gives examples of two men who died in the mid-1700s a Negro Harry and John Crockeser who must have spoken to some still alive when he wrote the piece: How these very aged persons serve as counters to diminish time, and to seem to draw all the mighty past, so seemingly long, into the compass of but two or three lives! From the first, we see a young Whitman marveling about time and human relations. Seller Inventory # ABE-1570292934216
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