Sarah Whitman, Boston, 1904, Signed by Holmes

1904. Boston: The Merrymount Press, 1904. Boston: The Merrymount Press, 1904. A Memorial Tribute to a Prominent Female Boston Artist Inscribed, Signed and Marked by Holmes [Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. (1841-1935)]. [Whitman, Sarah Wyman (1842-1904)]. Sarah Whitman. Boston: The Merrymount Press, 1904. [vi], 27, [2] pp. Specked paper boards with contrasting spine, title and image of wreath to front board, gilt title to spine, deckle edges. Light wear to spine ends and corners, light toning to text, light foxing to a few leaves. "Helen C. Bell/ 14 Chestnut St./ From O.W. Holmes" in pencil to head of title page, check marks in pencil, most likely by Holmes, in margins next to two passages. $2,500. * A prominent and commercially successful painter and stained glass and book cover designer who ran an important literary salon with her husband, Whitman was one of Holmes's neighbors in Boston and Beverly Farms. Sarah Whitman is a record of a memorial service in her honor at the Baptist Church in Beverly Farms. It reprints the poems, prayers and addresses delivered at this service, among them an address by Holmes. The recipient of this copy, Helen Olcott Choate Bell [1830-1918], was a prominent literary intellectual and mainstay of Whitman's salon. She was also the daughter of Rufus Choate, the great Boston lawyer and orator. One of the check marks is next to a passage in Richard C. Cabot's address reading: "The true attitude towards any person or groups of persons is not that of a critic, nor a judge, nor even a spectator, but that of a friend." The other is next to a paragraph in Holmes's address reading (in part): "I might go on accumulating the varied experiences which united to make her companionship interesting as well as delightful to people who had nothing in common except their love for her. And it was done so easily-always with a smile, often with a laugh, which she so readily could command that it almost made an amusement out of the interchange of high thoughts.