[Autograph Letter, Signed "James R Randall"]

Anniston, AL, 19 August 1887.. One page, in ink, on recto only of quarto sheet of onion skin paper. Punched in left margin, with small pin/tack losses at extreme fore- corners, small clipped biographical note affixed in upper margin, shallow tanning at margins, folds for mailing, otherwise good. Randall (1839 - 1908) is most widely remembered as the author of the poem "Maryland, My Maryland," which is also the reason for his being labelled the "Poet Laureate of the Lost Cause". It became a war hymn of the Confederacy after the poem's words were set to music during the Civil War by Jennie Cary. It later became the state song of Maryland, annually placed before the larger public outside the state's borders when played at the Preakness Stakes. The poem was first published on 26 April 1861, in the New Orleans newspaper, THE SUNDAY SENTINEL. Randall here responds to an autograph collector: "Dear Sir: I herewith send you two verses of [']My Maryland[']. I suppose you have seen the August [issue of the] Century which contains the whole poem and an account of its production etc, With best wishes for your prosperity, I am Very Truly Yrs James R. Randall." The aforementioned souvenir fair copy is not present.