Jim Bludso of the Prairie Belle, and Little Breeches

8vo. 175 x 110 mm., [7 x 4 ½ inches].  23pp.  Illustrated with 8 full-page wood engravings by S. Eytinge, Jr.  Stitched as issued in original orange printed wrappers.  Some light soiling to the wrapper, otherwise very good copy.  Housed in a slipcase of half green morocco spine and corners.  Ex-libris of Charles Harry Glemby.

Very well preserved copy of the first separate editions of Hay’s two poems.  The citation in Bibliography of American Literature reads in part for both these poems, “This [these] popular poem[s] appeared in a variety of forms.  The following is a suggestion publication sequence, but the cautious will note that a definite sequence has not been established.”   Jim Bludso of the Prairie Belle was originally published in The New York Semi-Weekly Tribune, January 6, 1871, and Little Breeches originally appeared in The New York {Weekly} Tribune on November 30, 1870. 

“John Milton Hay (1838-1905) was an American statesman and official whose career in government stretched over almost half a century. Beginning as a private secretary and an assistant for Abraham Lincoln he became a diplomat. He served as United States Secretary of State under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.  He was the biographer of Lincoln, and wrote poetry and other literature throughout his life.”

This little volume is illustrated by Sol Eytinge, brother of the stage and silent film actor Harry Eytinge.  Eytinge is best known for illustrating the Diamond Edition of the Works of Charles Dickens, but also illustrated books by Louisa May Alcott, Robert Browning, Oliver Wendel Homes, James Russell Lowell, Washington Irving, Edgar Allan Poe, and John Greenleaf Whitter.

This copy with the leather ownership label of American collector Charles Harry Glemby of New York City, who had two large book  auction sales in the 1890's.