American Female Poets, The.
[Anthologies, Poetry]. May, Caroline. The American Female Poets: With Biographical and Critical Notices. Philadelphia: Lindsay and Blakiston, 1848.
Thick 8vo.; frontispiece engraving; other illustrations throughout; few pages occasionally faded, lightly foxed; red cloth, elaborately stamped in gilt and blind; some use, tips lightly bumped, spine carefully rebacked.
First, and only, edition. A 525-page volume, printing biographical profiles of over 70 poets, accompanied by excerpts from their work. According to the preface:
One of the most striking characteristics of the present age is the number of female writers, especially in the department of belles-lettres. This is even more true of the United States, than of the old world; and poetry, which is the language of the affections, has been freely employed among us to express the emotions of a woman’s heart. Few American women...have written poems of any considerable length, but many have published volumes of poetry, and fugitive pieces of various merit have been poured forth through our newspapers and other periodicals, with the utmost profusion. This very profuseness has led many to underrate the genuine value, which upon closer examination will be found appertaining to these snatches of American song. As the rare exotic, costly because of the distance from which it is brought, will often suffer in comparison of beauty and fragrance with the abundant wild flowers of our meadows and woodland slopes, so the reader of our present volume, if ruled by an honest taste, will discover in the effusions of our gifted countrywomen as much grace of form, and powerful sweetness of thought and feeling, as in the blossoms of woman’s genius culled from other lands.
Authors profiled include Phyllis Wheatley, Anne Bradstreet, Maria Brooks, Lydia Huntley Sigourney, Sarah Josepha Hale, Frances S. Osgood, and Maria Lowell.
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