Home Ballads

Title: Home Ballads

Author: Taylor, Bayard

Publication: Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1882.

Description: 1882 edition of Bayard Taylor's "Home Ballads," a profusely-illustrated volume of poetry on family and pastoral themes. According to publisher's records, 5,060 copies were printed in October 1881 (Bibliography of American literature, 19811). Includes the poems "The Quaker Widow," "The Holly-Tree," "John Reed," "Jane Reed," and "The Old Pennsylvania Farmer." This edition was published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company and The Riverside Press and electrotyped and printed on heavy stock paper by H. O. Houghton & Co. The electrotyped engravings were created by W.B. Closson, George T. Andrew, W.J. Linton, N. Orr & Co., Henry Gray, and E. Heineman. In publisher's pictorial cloth binding, stamped in gilt and red with beveled board edges, black endpapers, and gilt text edges. 9.125 x 7.125 inches; 61, [3] pages.

Moderately bumped spine ends, rubbed corners, and ghost pencil markings to front free endpaper. Gilt decoration dull on spine, but bright on front cover and text edges. Overall, a Very Good plus copy with a clean interior.

Bayard Taylor (1825-1878) was an American poet, travel writer, and translator. He was quite popular as a poet, attracting more than 4,000 attendees to a reading in 1876, a record that stood for 85 years. Some have suggested that his novel "Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania" was America's first gay novel (Austen, R. Playing the game, p. 9).

References:

Austen, Roger. Playing the Game: The Homosexual Novel in America. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1977.

Blanck, Jacob, Michael Winship, and Virginia L. Smyers. Bibliography of American Literature (BAL). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.