Early American Poets

We are going to miss our built-in bookcases when we move.
These shelves hold poetry books, mostly old ones.

One of my favorite books when I was young was The Best Loved Poems of the American People.  My aunt had received a copy of this book as one of her Book of the Month Club selections.  I can remember where I was standing when she first read to me, Annabel Lee, by Edgar Allan Poe.  It made such an impression on me.  When Clint first became my pen pal I learned he, too, loved the early American poets.  I had no idea of some of the poetry books in his collection until we got married.

This book is a favorite one of mine, from looking at
and feeling the woodcut images, I can feel the raised
paint and embossing.

American artist, Gustave Baumann (1881-1971), was known as an
 American Master of Color Woodblocks.

This is the woodblock print for the
month of April in the book.

The book is dated 1912.

I just love looking at these books,
what beautiful covers.

Early 1900s.

American poet Eugene Field's copies of the works of James
Whitcomb Riley.  This collection is notarized and
 belonged to Eugene Field, II, the son of
poet Eugene Field.

Eugene Field was mostly known as a children's poet.
One of his most famous works is Wynken,
Blynken and Nod.



I can't imagine putting these books in a moving van,
these will travel with me in the car.  :-)

This book page was hand lettered and handpainted.



Shown above is an original watercolor painting.

This is my all time favorite book of all the poetry books.
It is full of original handpainted watercolor paintings by
American and English artists. This is volume I of XV volumes.



The notary embossed seal can barely be seen
 in this photo.



Someday I would like to do research on
all the artists who contributed to this book.
It is hard to believe these are tiny
original paintings in the book.