Curfew Must Not Ring To-Night, manuscript copy.
UNCOPYRIGHTED:
ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR 20TH-CENTURY POEMS BY A WOMAN A FAIR COPY FOR THE AUTHOR’S SELF-SUPPORT
Thorpe, Rose Hartwick. [Manuscript Copy]: Curfew Must Not Ring To-Night. [circa 1920]. Autograph Poem Signed (“Rose Hartwick Thorpe, ‘Rosemere’ Pacific Beach, California”).
Seven quarto leaves neatly lined on folio leaves of laid paper; sewing in left margin, presumably removed from a larger volume, just about fine.
A sentimental narrative poem set in Cromwell’s time about a young woman whose fiance is to die when the curfew bell rings, and which she prevents and gains him a pardon due to her heroic actions. The poem, based on an old story was written by Indiana-born Thorpe in 1867 when she was 16 years old, was published locally a number of times, and was finally published in 1870 in the Detroit Commercial Advertiser where it gained far greater notice. Thorpe had written the poem after she read a version of the story written by Lydia H. Sigourney. Thorpe had neglected to copyright the poem, and made almost no money on it, to the point where after her husband’s death in 1916, and her subsequent move to California, she was forced to charge $5 to write out the poem in order to support her family.
Once in California, Thorpe became an active worker for both Woman Suffrage and for the Y.W.C.A.
Curfew Must Not Ring To-Night was reportedly one of Queen Victoria’s favorite poems, and one of the most popular poems of the 19th century, reprinted innumerable times, and often illustrated (by, among others, James Thurber, but more often by more sentimental artists). It was also the basis for at least three silent films.
A handsome copy of a poem that rivaled The Battle Hymn of the Republic for the most popular 19th-century poem by an American woman.
(#4658396)
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