Edwin Markham Ephemera collection II
Date Published: 1892 to 1943
Edition: various
Binding: No binding & soft cover
A collection of 147 mostly unique ephemera items dating from 1892 to 1943, specifically approximately 70 leaflets and chapbooks, approximately 50 letters, 11 broadsides, 11 photos, 3 manuscripts/typescripts, 1 scrapbook, and 1 book.
Edwin Markham (né Charles Edward Anson Markham, (1852-1940) was an American poet, Poet Laureate of Oregon, best remembered for his poems, “Lincoln, the Man of the People” (read by Markham at the dedication of the Lincoln Memorial in 1922) and “The Man with the Hoe” (inspired by Jean-François Millet’s painting).
Florence Hamilton (née Danforth, 1873-1968) was the lecture manager and secretary to Edwin Markham from 1920 until he suffered a debilitating stroke in 1936. After Markham's death, she made a donation of his manuscripts to the Library of Congress. Hamilton published several volumes of her own poetry, lectured on poetry herself, and was an active member of several organizations for poets.
Lincoln & Other Poems. New York: McClure, Phillip & Co., 1901. Not bound or sewn, 9 gatherings of the book.
The Man with the Hoe: Written after Seeing Millet's World-famous Painting [and] Henry Pennington Toler, Man, - with Life Eternal Written After Seeing Truth in Christian Science. [New York: New Harlem Pub. Co., 1903]. Red wrappers, sewn 7 leaves with stub of eighth leaf. Only 4 copies recorded.
“Virgilia”. The love poem extracted from the Cosmopolitan for August 1905 (pp. 361-4) and bound in stiff paper covers tied with a pink ribbon, with the title written stylistically in red and pink on the front cover. Enclosed is a sepia reproduction of the painting, “Mother of Rembrandt”.
The Bolted Door. [New York: 19 December 1911 or later]. Wrapper held together with a red cord, printed in black type, 4 leaves, text on 4 pp. Slight split at the top, lacking the flap of the back wrapper. A poem written on behalf of the poor children of New York City for the occasion of Frederick Townsend Martin’s Society Entertainment held at the Plaza Hotel in aid of the Christmas fund. Photo of Markham on verso of the front wrapper. Signed presentation copy for Genevieve Farnell-Bond. No. 63 of an edition of 350 copies. No copy recorded by WorldCat.
Broadside advertising the publication of California the Wonderful [1914], several tears and a couple of small pieces missing, folds.
A Song of Victory. A Carol at the End of the World War. At end of text: Copyright, 1919, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate. Broadside within an ornamental border. 56 × 21 cm. Signed at the top: “Edwin Markham | Staten Island, N.Y. Dec. 1919.” Folds and tiny tears at the folds. Only 4 copies recorded by WorldCat.
“Outwitted” and “The Divine Strategy”, ms. for Rollin and Genevieve Bond, Staten Island, 1 p., December 1919. 2 short poems that express Markham’s Universalist beliefs in love that is big enough to include everyone.
The Rise of Reason. [192?]. Small broadside, 21 × 12 cm. Signed. Pinholes at the top and bottom. Not recorded.
2 signed broadside poems, The Man with the Hoe (copyright 1899, 1924; typed correction on one line) and Lincoln, the Man of the People (copyright 1900, 1919; one word hand corrected), presentation copies to George Julian Houtaine, friend and neighbor of Markham, September 1928, both under glass and within a wooden frame (framed at the Goodspeed’s Book Shop, Inc. 9 September 1976). 48 × 46 cm frame exterior. This is “the revised version” of the Lincoln broadside. At the top before the poem: “This revised version was chosen out of two-hundred-fifty Lincoln poems by the committee headed by Chief Justice Taft, to be read at the dedication of the great Lincoln Memorial erected by the government in Washington, D.C., in 1922. There were one-hundred thousand listeners on the ground and two-million over the radio. President Harding delivered the address.”
Lincoln, the Man of the People. Copyright 1900, 1919. Circa or after 1922. 5 copies, dog-eared, slight tears. Broadside 36 × 22 cm. This differs from the revised version. At the top of the broadside: “This is the prize poem on Lincoln; for in 1922, when the American Government had completed the Lincoln Memorial Building at Washington, D.C… The president delivered the oration: the author read the poem.”
Edwin Markham on Swedenborg and Other Papers. [Boston: 1925?]. 48 pp. Wrappers, wire-stitched. Cover title. Contains Markham’s “Swedenborg” (essay) and “Swedenborg” (poem dated 28 June 1924), Rev. William L. Worcester’s “The Bible, the Revelation of the New Age”, and Rev. John Goddard’s “Jesus Christ, the Lord of the New Age”. Reprinted from The New-Church Review (issues of January and April, 1925). Only a few copies recorded.
Leaflet, “The International Longfellow Society Presents Edwin Markham Poet Laureate of America”, 21, 23 February 1926, issued by the First Congregational Church, Washington, DC. 2 copies.
ALS addressed “My dear child”, 15 March 1926, West New Brighton, N.Y., sends “a blessing for your kindness while I tarried in Washington”
Card addressed to Genevieve Bond from The American Mercury noting that Markham’s “The Ballad of the Gallows-Bird” will be published in the August 1926 issue of the magazine.
“There is high place in the upper air….” Holyoke, Mass: The Nautilus, [1926]. Small broadside, 14 × 10 cm. Tiny piece missing at the top left-hand corner. Signed: “Good friends, good cheer | Through all the coming year! | E.M.” Not recorded.
Leaflet (slight tear on first leaf) advertising The Book of Poetry with illustration of Markham on the first page with a mimeographed letter, order form and envelope from Wm. H. Wise, the publisher, December 1926.
Ts. carbon of Markham’s letters to Florence Hamilton, 39 letters, with a few replies from Hamilton, annotation in pencil by Hamilton on letter dated 25 March 1930, [66] pp.
Ms. written in pencil in Florence Hamilton’s hand, presumably by Markham, [192?-3?], [1], 52 pp., untitled. The first numbered page begins: “In approaching a subject which intimately concerns the most private matters pertaining to the human family….” The previous page has a synopsis or table of contents: “Introduction | A Few of the Theories | The Female and undeveloped male | The Right and Left Theory….”
Souvenir program, “Edwin Markham’s 80th Birthday Celebration”, Carnegie Hall, April 24th, 1932, New York. 2 copies.
Leaflet, “Ida Benfey Judd announces three evenings of literature across the footlights with Edwin Markham and Suzann Steele”, Little Theatre, Broadway, New York. Markham read his poetry on his 81st birthday, 23 April 1933.
Leaflet, “Edwin Markham in the Gunnison Memorial Room April 22, 1934”, photo of Markham and other people (his wife, Florence Hamilton, et al) cutting a cake, issued by the All Souls Universalist Church, Brooklyn, New York.
Leaflet issued by the All Souls Universalist Church, Brooklyn, New York, 22 April 1934, with “Lincoln the Man on the People” on the first page.
Leaflet, issued by the All Souls Universalist Church, Brooklyn, New York 28 April 1935. Poem, “Spring Planting”, by Markham on the first page with illustration. Markham also delivered the sermon.
Mark Twain Quarterly, spring 1941, Edwin Markham number.
Scrapbook of news clippings about Markham, 1930-40s.
Photos:
Cabinet b&w photo, Markham seated, F.O. Haussler, Paris Panel, 911 Broadway, Oakland, California. The verso of the photo is signed “Charles Edwin Markham” with an untitled poem, “The Tragedy”, in Markham’s hand, dated Oakland, 10 February 1892. Signature of G.L. Browne with his address in New York.
Cabinet b&w photo, [1892?]. Signature of G.L. Browne with his address in New York.
B&w photo mounted on black stiff paper of Markham standing by a child on a horse, n.d.
B&w photo print, tears at the sides, signed, n.d.
B&w photo mounted on stiff paper, n.d.
B&w photo of a woman (Markham’s wife?) and child, both seated with an open book, n.d. 3 copies, 2 on stiff paper.
B&w oval photo of a woman and child, n.d., on stiff paper.
Documents pertaining to Florence Hamilton:
Leaflet advertising the publication of Mirrors and Human Voices: Poems (1942), 2 copies.
Leaflet with 2 insertions (photo of Hamilton on the first leaf) re Hamilton giving lectures with testimonials, including Markham, from many other writers.
Unsigned general release legal document, October 1936, that Hamilton has resigned her employment as Markham’s secretary, manager, and clerk and that she will surrender all material belonging to Markham in her possession to Markham or to his son, Virgil Markham.
Documents pertaining to the Friends of Edwin Markham:
Hamlin Garland, ms., “Hamlin Garland’s Garland’s Opinion of Edwin Markham”, n.d., 6 pp. Garland (1860-1940) was an American novelist, poet, essayist, short story writer.
Robert Underwood Johnson (1853-1937), ts. of poem, “Edwin Markham” by the American writer and diplomat, n.d.
Ruth Le Prade, Sonnets to Edwin Markham (1937), leaflet with 3 poems. Approximately 60 copies, only one copy recorded (New York Public Library). Le Prade (1894-1969). Markham wrote the introduction to her first book of poetry, A Woman Free (1917). In her backyard she had a Poet’s Garden, which was formally dedicated in 1927 by Markham with the planting of the Song Tree (a sycamore).
TLS from Le Prade to Rollin Bond (a composer and professor) 23 April 1937, re her association with Markham and the court case about Markham’s sanity and competence.
Card invitation from Le Prade to Genevieve Farnell, post-marked 8 April 1942, re celebration of the 90th anniversary of Markham’s birth.
TL to Le Prade from Albert M. Bender (a leading patron of the arts in San Francisco), 6 October 1937, re law suit about Markham’s competence.
Genevieve Farnell Bond. Approximately 50 pp., 1937, including her reminiscences of Markham, other documents, and letters to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Governor Herbert Lehman, Governor of New York, Virgil Markham, and Florence Hamilton. The material pertains to the decision of the Brooklyn Supreme Court decision regarding Markham’s incompetence after his stroke. Bond (188?-1961) was a poet, lyricist, and newspaper woman. She and her second husband, Rollin Bond, were good friends of Markham in the early decades of the twentieth century when Markham lived in California.
Collection on consignment with LDRB.
Item #8434
$1,680.00 USD
$2,312.86 CAD