[Rarebooks] FS: Oliver Wendell Holmes AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION and LETTER

[Charles Agvent]

HOLMES, Oliver Wendell. AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION SIGNED and AUTOGRAPH LETTER 
SIGNED. Boston, 7 March 1878. On a (6-7/8" x 9") piece of paper the 
author has written the following seven-line stanza from one of his best 
known poems "The Chambered Nautilus": "Build thee more stately mansions, 
O my soul,/As the swift seasons roll!/Leave thy low-vaulted past!/Let 
each new temple, nobler than the last,/Shut thee from heaven with a dome 
more vast,/Till thou at length art free,/Leaving thine outgrown shell by 
life's unresting sea!" Below this he has SIGNED "Oliver Wendell 
Holmes/Boston, March 10th 1888." On the verso of the paper (though not 
on the exact reverse side of the poem, so that one could cut the paper 
and have two separate autographed pieces), is a brief AUTOGRAPH LETTER 
SIGNED by Holmes to a Miss Wright: "It gives one pleasure to comply with 
our slight request. Please turn this leaf. Very truly yours OW Holmes. 
Boston, March 10th 1888." Normal light creases. A Fine example from this 
noted author and doctor.

The nautilus is a sea creature that lives inside a spiral shell. As it 
grows, it makes new, larger chambers of its shell in which to live, 
closing off the old chambers and gradually forming a spiral. Holmes uses 
the nautilus as a metaphor for the human soul, emphasizing the idea that 
humans expand their horizons until they achieve the spiritual freedom of 
heaven or the afterlife. One of the most enduring nature poems of the 
nineteenth century, "The Chambered Nautilus" was first published in the 
periodical THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY and then in book form in Holmes's 1858 
classic THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE. (#015372)        $1,000.00

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