Very desirable collection of two handwritten poems and five ALSs, each signed “John G. Whittier,” 16 total pages, ranging in size from 4.5 x 3.25 to 5 x 8, dated between 1860 and 1892. Both poems are untitled: the first, November 6, 1860, in part: “As one who writes upon the beach / Where soon the rising tide shall reach, / Or scribbles o’er the frosty stain / Of breath upon the wintry pane”; the second poem, December 24, 1891, in full: “I sit within my home of peace / And that which I as in sailed the sea / So long to find, the golden fleece / Drops at the feet of me / Than any Argo’s fright above / I prize the Golden Gift of Love!” The five letters are written from either Danvers, Massachusetts or Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, and are all addressed to unidentified friends. The latest letter, dated August 19, 1892, was written by Whittier only 19 days before his passing at the age of 84; the letter, in part: “I don’t believe that half of the nice things the papers are saying of thy little book…Here’s a clipping from the Chicago ‘Dial’ the best…literary paper in the country.” In overall fine condition, with some dampstaining to the bottom of the longer poem. Whittier spent the last winters of his life, from 1876 to 1892, at Oak Knoll, the home of his cousins in Danvers, Massachusetts. Then, in the summer of 1892, he resided at the home of a cousin in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, where he wrote his last poem, a tribute to Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
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