[Rarebooks] FS: Maine poet's illuminated manuscript

[Bob Petrilla]

Maine / Lockhart, Arthur John. "SONGS OF THE PENNAMAQUAN AND OTHER POEMS"
[manuscript]. . Handwritten manuscript in book form. 201pp, lettered
throughout in black and colored inks Illustrated with printed views from
various sources, all scenes of Maine: Pemaquid Light, Pemaquid Harbor, and
Bar Harbor. (Pencilled on the front pastedown is "Vol. I.") The book opens
to a hand-illuminated title page, with a view of “Where Fundy’s tides run
up the shore”, followed by a hand-illuminated three-page “Table of
Contents.” On page 3 is a biographical sketch of the author (with small
photo). The many original poems that follow are neatly lettered by hand and
illuminated in colors. Bound in black morocco over flexible boards;
hand-lettered and illuminated pastedown on cover: “Songs of the Pennamaquan
and Other Poems”.  6.75" x 4". Very Good. Morocco.
The most striking feature of this curious manuscript is the author's
hand-illumination. The initial letters or in some cases the initial words
of each line of each poem are hand-colored in many hues, some accompanied
by abstract designs. He includes numerous historical and/or literary
footnotes below some of the poems. The longest poem--“By Pen[n]amaquan: A
Summer Memory”--runs from p.11 through p.82. (The Pennamaquan is a short
river in Pembroke, Maine that drains into Cobscook Bay.) With the exception
of “The Spanish Armada” (pp. 132-149), the remaining poems vary in length
from 1-5 pages, and subjects are natural scenes, religious topics, and a
few historical subjects. ~~ Arthur John Lockhart (1850-1926, aka “Pastor
Felix”—the Happy Pastor) was a Nova Scotia-born Methodist minister, poet
and essayist who moved to Maine and served as a minister there for some 40
years. He published three books of poetry: Masque of the Minstrels….
(1887); Beside the Narragaugus….(1895); and The Birds of the Cross (1909),
as well as The Papers of Pastor Felix (1903), a work that also included
some of his poems. As “Pastor Felix”, he also regularly published his
essays in the “Portland Transcript.” Offered here is a collection of his
(unpublished) poems, attractively presented as "Songs of the Pennamaquan."
 ~~ The lead poem in this manuscript, "By Pen[n]amaquan: A Summer Memory,"
begins: "Come back, O Day! / whose rosy glow / Gleamed, flushed / and faded
long ago! / In Memory's shrine / In Fancy's glass, / Your shadows still /
Transfigured pass..." (pp. 11-82).   $1,250.00

Trade discount 20%, postpaid in US



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