Passion-Flowers

Title: Passion-Flowers

Author: [Howe, Julia Ward]

Publication: Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1854.

Description: First edition of Julia Ward Howe's debut book, a collection of poems with feminist themes in which she challenges the restrictive domestic life expected of women and voices her deep dissatisfaction with her own stifling marriage. Published anonymously. One of 1000 copies. Bound in full publisher's brown cloth over boards, stamped in blind and gilt, with yellow endpapers. 7.5 x 5 inches; iv, 187, [1] pages, 8-page publisher's catalog dated November 1853. Binding B in BAL (no priority established). Binding with chipping to head of spine and light soiling, a few small spots to text block fore-edge, and name of author penciled on title page, else a clean and attractive copy. Very Good+. From the collection of W.C. [William Charles] Mackie (1870-1931), physician and medical examiner, with his label on front pastedown. Acquired in 1931 by Arthur Williams Hall (1873-1952) of Massachusetts, bibliophile and manufacturer of laboratory equipment, with his pencil notes on front pastedown; thence by descent through three generations. Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910) was a suffragist, abolitionist, and pacifist, best known for writing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." But this book, her first, was the most subversive, causing a public uproar and an apoplectic response by her husband. "Here is revolt enough, between these blue covers," wrote Howe's friend Henry Longfellow in his journal about the book. Nathaniel Hawthorne vacillated between acknowledging and dismissing her talent and wrote to the publisher William Ticknor, "These are admirable poems of Mrs. Howe's, but the devil must be in the woman to publish them...," and later, "'Passion Flowers' were delightful; but she ought to have been soundly whipt for publishing them." Despite the outrage, the book was successful, selling out its initial run of 1000 copies, followed by two more editions within four months. She continued her activism and writing throughout her life and in 1908 became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. More recently, Howe's incomplete novel with an intersex protagonist was published as "The Hermaphrodite" (2004). References: - Blanck, J. Bibliography of American literature, 9409. - Hawthorne, N. Letters of Hawthorne to William D. Ticknor, 1851-1864, I, pp. 29-30, II, p. 50. - Williams, G. Hungry heart: The literary emergence of Julia Ward Howe.