AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (ALS)

Kennett Square, PA, 4 June 1865. Letter. Minor creases from mailing, some variation in ink strength. Near Fine. Three-page letter on both sides of one 9-3/4" x 7-3/4" sheet to a Mrs. [Margaret Stuyvesant] Rutherford SIGNED in full by Taylor who grants permission for Mr. Potter to set to music to his poem “Bedouin Song” and wondering about the mechanics of doing so: "Remember that I do not read music, and if the air and accompaniment were sent to me without hints as to where the lines terminate, I might produce effects not anticipated by the composer." He also discusses an upcoming meeting with the artist Elihu Vedder: “it might be a little awkward for (truncated) me to write and urge the illustration of one of my poems. Hath he been furnished with the necessary sheet of card-board? Methinks an accidental failure in this respect may account for the failure of his sketch. Artists are (of right) exceptional beings, and, like nervous cows, require to be tied up, hoof and horn, before they will allow their imaginative faculty to be milked.” Taylor was a successful poet and America’s first travel writer. (Inventory #: 021770)