Specimens of American Poetry with Critical and Biographical Notices. In Three Volumes

Boston: S. G. Goodrich and Co, 1829. First edition. 3 vols. 8vo (19.9 x 12 cm). Original muslin-backed boards, printed paper spine labels, uncut. Some wear to labels and extremities; some foxing, but an entirely original, unsophisticated copy. First edition. 3 vols. 8vo (19.9 x 12 cm). The first comprehensive anthology of American poetry, euphemistically called "Goodrich's Kettle of Poetry." This important and thorough study is also valued for containing one of the first public mentions of Poe's first book 'Tamerlane,' which had been published two years earlier. Kettell includes biographical information and excerpts from the work of 188 American poets, among them Cotton Mather, John Greenleaf Whittier, Francis Scott Key, Sarah J. Hale, Richard H. Dana, William C. Bryant, Fitz-Greene Halleck, and a host of authors now lost to the vagaries of taste. Both Longfellow and Whittier had yet to publish a volume of poetry. At the end of the third volume is a 28-page chronological listing of all of the American poetry through 1829 encountered by the editor while producing this work. The list gives imprint, size and pagination. A landmark American work, in original condition. BAL 3251; Harris, Collection of American Poetry, p. 137. Provenance: Samuel Wagner (contemporary ownership signatures on flyleaves)