Thorpe, Rose Hartwick:

$950 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

[MANUSCRIPT FAIR COPY, SIGNED, OF "CURFEW MUST NOT RING TO-NIGHT," WITH RELATED LETTER]. The complete text, signed and dated at the conclusion, of Thorpe's famous narrative poem, the opening stanza of which reads: "England's sun was slowly setting o'er the hill-tops far away, [/] Filling all the land with beauty at the close of one sad day; [/] And its last rays kissed the forehead of a man and maiden fair, -- [/] He with steps so slow and weary; she with sunny floating hair [/] He with bowed head, sad and thoughtful; she [with] lips so cold and white, [/] Struggled to keep back the murmur, [/] 'Curfew must not ring tonight.'" Accompanied by a typed letter, signed, from Thorpe, to Rev. Cornelius Greenway of Brooklyn, NY., one page, small quarto, 3357 Fourth St., San Diego, CA, 10 September 1930, with the original mailing envelopes for both. In her letter, Thorpe writes: "If the poem you desire an autograph copy of was a short one I would gladly comply....In 1886 Edward W. Bok, editor...sent me a request for an autograph copy of my famous curfew poem with an accompanying check of ten dollars....I accordingly placed a price of five dollars a copy for this wearisome task which consumed so much of my time and strength necessarily needed for my literary work which was my only means of support. From that time I have received the above remuneration for this service (the only remuneration for the curfew poem, which, in the first place, I gave to the public)." Thorpe (1850–1939) wrote

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