UNCLE REMUS: HIS SONGS AND HIS SAYINGS

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1890. Early Edition. Hardcover. Some aging to the text; the covers bright and strong. Near Fine. Frederick S. Church and James Moser. Decorated blue cloth. GROLIER AMERICAN HUNDRED 83. Illustrated with 8 plates and text engravings by Frederick S. Church and James Moser. While not a First Edition (1882), this copy has a wonderful SIGNED AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION on the front endpaper: "'Oh, don't stay long -- Oh, don't stay late--/Let it be a long ways ter de Goodbye Gate!'/Joel Chandler Harris/West End, Atlanta:/15 May, 1891." While this quote has been reported to come from UNCLE REMUS, it in fact is from a Southern ballad, a Corn-husking song titled "Round It Up A Heap It Up": "Round it up a heap it up a Round it up a corn, A joog-a-loa./De big owl hoot and cry for his mate, My honey, my love!/Oh, don't stay long, oh, don't stay late.../It ain't so fur to de goodbye gate." In the book "UNCLE REMUS," JOEL CHANDLER HARRIS AS SEEN AND REMEMBERED BY A FEW OF HIS FRIENDS, the authors on pages 106-108 explain how Harris would usually write this quote in his books. When asked to write an aphorism in a book, Harris said he had no aphorisms and would write this quote. The closest it comes to anything in UNCLE REMUS is the quote "don't stay long!" which occurs in THE PLOUGH-HANDS' SONG (JASPER COUNTY-1860.) on pages 161-162. In any case survivals of any edition of UNCLE REMUS with any quote are scarce.