LONGFELLOW, Henry Wadsworth (1807-1882). Autograph poetic manuscript signed ("Henry W. Longfellow"), the printer's fair copy of "Hermes Trismegistus", Cambridge, MA, January 1882.

6pp., 4to (248 x 191 mm), titled in autograph at head, complete as first published in 10 stanzas, about 420 words, 90 lines in total including the introduction by the Neoplatonist philosopher Iamblichus, old folds, docketed in purple ink, penciled notations by the publisher. [With:] 3 engraved portraits of Longfellow; the cover of the February 1882 issue of The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine in which the poem first appeared and the two text leaves that comprise the first appearance of the poem. Notes at the head of the first leaf indicate "Copy received at 2:50 p.m" in purple ink and another in pencil "Set at once & send proofs this afternoon. Ed." A pencil note in another hand reads simply "Clara" (possibly Longfellow's friend Clara Crowninshield?), though the hand in which the manuscript is written is likely that of Edith Longfellow. All bound in red morocco gilt, covers with palmette border, gilt-lettering within, stamp-signed by Stikeman (light rubbing at corners). Provenance: sold, Anderson Galleries, 1 June 1904, lot 182.

THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN THE LAST POEM LONGFELLOW COMPOSED, “Hermes Trismegistus” endeavors to express the contemplations and sentiments of someone as they approach death and transition from the temporal world to the eternal. The present manuscript appears to be the “Ur text” of the poem, being THE ONLY KNOWN CONTEMPORARY MANUSCRIPT TRANSCRIPT OF THE POEM.