HOMER; BRYANT, William Cullen (trans.).

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

The Iliad. First edition of Bryant's translation, this copy with manuscript material displaying the translation at different stages, from rough to more polished drafts, and, finally, Bryant's authorial corrections to the typescript. The longest autograph addition consists of a choice episode, the battle between Diomedes and Mars from Book V, which was excerpted in a journal ahead of the entire epic's publication.The leaf is tipped in opposite the half-title of Volume II and seems to be near-finished copy for the final 242 lines of Book V, titled "The Combat of Diomed and Mars". After Bryant finished his work on Book I in 1866, an extract was published in the Atlantic Monthly. His publisher requested more, and so this excerpt was chosen for print in the January 1868 issue.A working draft of a few dozen lines, of which half are struck through, is penned on the verso of a loosely inserted autograph letter signed by Edmund Dwight and dated 9 June 1869. Dwight was a trustee of the Homeopathic Medical College that Bryant founded in New York, and the letter refers to a meeting held to appoint professors.Tipped in to the first volume are typescript copies of pages 63 and 64 of Book II, with Bryant's amendments. Most are minor adjustments to spelling and punctuation, but there are a few alterations to wording.

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