Astræa: The Balance of Illusions. A Poem Delivered Before the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Yale College, August 14, 1850

Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1850. First edition, BAL state B (no priority), binding A. 12mo. 39, [1] pp. + 4 pp. inserted publisher's list (October 1850) at front. Publisher's printed glazed cream-yellow boards (BAL binding A); spine chipped, front joint cracked, some soiling to boards, in custom brown cloth slipcase and chemise First edition of this poetical address to the Yale Phi Beta Kappa Society by Oliver Wendell Holmes. With a later manuscript note of October 1906 on the ffep by Yale alumnus Edmund Stedman, who witnessed the address: "I was only sixteen … it much impressed me, as all of us college boys knew something of the doctor's early verse." Stedman (1833-1908) was a poet, critic and stock broker, whose anthologies of American literature were important steps in defining the canon of American letters. BAL identifies two printings of the first edition, each printing having two states distinguished by minute typographical differences to the copyright page and signature mark 3. Priority between the two states is unknown. This is one of 2,500 copies of the first printing, state B (or A?), bound in the publisher's glazed boards, which BAL gives priority over the various cloth bindings. Edwin P. Hoyt, in his biography of Holmes, notes that "Holmes got one hundred dollars from publisher Fields for 'Astrea,' which pleased the author mightily" (The Improper Bostonian, p. 296) PROVENANCE: Edmund Clarence Stedman (book-plate, manuscript note); Mrs. J. Insley Blair (Blairhame book-label)REFERENCE: BAL 8757; Currier & Tilton, pp. 47-8