AFTERMATH

London: George Routledge and Sons, 1873. First British Edition. Hardcover. Owner name of E. M. Vincent on the half-title page. Some bubbling to the cloth, light rubbing and wear to the spine tips. Very Good and a fine Association Copy. According to BAL 12164, "Apparently published simultaneously in Boston and London." Small octavo (4" x 6-1/2") bound in publisher's gilt-ruled and lettered green cloth with black stamping. State 1. A Presentation Copy from Longfellow INSCRIBED in the poet's distinct hand on the verso of the front endpaper: "Mrs. Theodore Parker/with kind regards/of the Author/June 11, 1874."

Mrs. Theodore Parker (Lydia Cabot) (truncated) was the wife of Theodore Parker (1810-1860) who was a leading abolitionist, American Transcendentalist, and, along with William Ellery Channing, the most important and influential Unitarian minister of the nineteenth century. Parker's sermons inspired speeches by Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. Parker wrote in 1850: "A democracy -- that is a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people." And it was Parker in 1853 who said, "I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one. . . . But from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice." (Inventory #: 017695)