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SPRAGUE, CHARLES : ODE

SPRAGUE, Charles. ODE: Pronounced before the Inhabitants of Boston, September the Seventeenth, 1830, at the CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION of the Settlement of the City. Boston: John H. Eastburn, City Printer, 1830. First edition, 4to, a 24-page pamphlet in printed wrappers. (On the verso of the title: "Ordered, That the Committee of Arrangements for the celebration of this day be, and they are hereby, directed to present the thanks of the City Council to Charles Sprague, Esquire, for the elegant, interesting and instructive Poem, this day pronounced by him, and respectfully request a copy thereof for the press.") Inscribed by the author on the title page to Edward Rand, a prominent Newburyport merchant (Sprague's brother-in-law?). Sprague (1791-1875) was a Boston businessman and a poet whose work, largely occasional, was taken seriously enough for the London Atheneum to refer to him as "the American Pope." In fact, his style is much closer to Gray and Collins: their influence is clear in the present poem. Both text and wrappers have some light foxing. The wrappers are sunned and somewhat soiled, with wear to the edges and tears at top and bottom of the spine. This is a very good copy of a fragile item. Scarce., Very Good. Illustr: FE