Lowell, James R.:

$225 · Offered by William Reese Company

THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL. First edition of Lowell's Tennyson-inspired Arthurian grail poem. Lowell's Vision of Sir Launfal has been described as "one of the most popular literary works of its day and the most widely read example of American Arthurian literature before Twain's Connecticut Yankee. A new edition or a reprint of an earlier edition appeared in virtually every year from its publication in 1848 until the beginning of the twentieth century. It was memorized in schools, and it was recited and performed in pageants. A strange blend of the medieval and the American, the poem tells of Launfal's dream vision. As in many medieval dream visions, the dreamer learns a lesson…about the true meaning of charity" (Lupack). This copy, finely bound by the Club Bindery in crushed levant, bears the bookplate of D.F. Appleton on the verso of the front free endpaper, with the original printed yellow paper cover mounted and bound in at back. Daniel F. Appleton (1826–1904) was a partner in the American Waltham Watch Company. The present volume appeared as item no. 323 in the Bangs sale of Appleton's library in 1903.

• Printing: later

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