Deephaven. Illustrated by Charles and Marcia Woodbury by Jewett, Sarah Orne - 1894

Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1894. First Edition thus, one of 250 copies numbered in red on the verso of the title page. With the addition of an eight-page Preface for this edition by the author, Sarah Orne Jewett. 8vo; [i-x] [1]306pp.;305pp; original drab paper over boards with smooth white cloth spine and tips; printed buff paper label at spine; covers slightly soiled, edges a trifle rubbed, very good+. Illustrated by Marcia and Charles Woodbury with fifty-two half-tone engravings that are printed and chine colled to text pages. This handsome edition of the writer's first book reflects Sarah Orne Jewett's wide popularity among her contemporaries. A handsome edition of the author's first book.
When DEEPHAVEN appeared in 1877, critics and readers alike recognized a new voice in the value of using local speech and realistic detail to reflect uniquely American character within a loosely-woven plot structure. Sarah Orne Jewett read and absorbed Stowe's work and in DEEPHAVEN, and the books to follow refined the sense of place and character to become the most eloquent and masterful of the regionalist writers.
By 1894 her publishers though a gift edition would find favor with the book's many admirers. Jewett wrote a new preface noting the many great changes that had occurred in the life of provincial New England since the book's first appearance; and suggested to the publisher that her good friends Marcia and Charles Woodbury illustrate the new edition. The book was the subject of an article by Babette Ann Boleman for THE COLOPHON entitled "Deephaven and the Woodburys". She noted that the two artists were "such intimate friends of Sarah Orne jewett's that they could work in the most amicable collaboration with her. Above all, they knew DEEPHAVEN -- all the Deephaven's of the New England coast". Marcia Oakes Woodbury, like the writer, had been born and raised in South Berwick and attended Berwick Academy; moreover,her husband Charles Woodbury was noted for his 'artistic fascination with the shifting surfaces of the sea'. To ease communication as the Woodbury's worked on their engravings, the artists took up residence in South Berwick. Just a few minutes walk away from Miss Jewett, the three conferred frequently. The writer made numerous suggestions which appear to have been acted upon; Miss Jewett's house, a number of local scenes and various relatives became backgrounds or models for the illustrations. The writer took great pleasure in the book when it appeared for it had evolved out of a deeply sympathetic collaborative effort. The scenes of the Maine shore are sweetly harmonious with the mood and tone of DEEPHAVEN and beautifully render the evocative quality of the text. BAL 10904. Boleman, Babette Ann, "Deephaven and the Woodbury's", THE COLOPHON (No. 3,September 1933). Also, THE BOSTONIANS, Painters of an Elegant Age, 1870-1930.