The Library of Stephen J. Farber

16mo. Wood engravings and floriated initials throughout; each page of text is enclosed by a single-rule border with filigree ornaments at the corners. Original dark plum gilt, upper cover lettered in gilt, pale blue endpapers (spine sunned, recased, spine endpapers strengthened, rubbing to extremities).

FIRST SEPARATE AMERICAN EDITION. The Raven first appeared in print in The American Review (see lot 173), published February 1845, and was first collected in The Raven and Other Poems... published by Wiley and Putnam in November 1845. BAL 16216 records the first separate edition as an 1869 Glasgow printing, though it is now understood to have been produced for the blind, printed in large color type on lilac paper. Few copies of the present printing are known; though not listed in BAL or Heartman and Canny, Sabin lists an edition from 1870 with a similar imprint as this example, "New York: W.J. Demorest. 1870. 16mo" though the title is given as "The Raven and Other Poems" (Sabin). W. Jennings Demorest published a monthly magazine in which this printing was offered as a premium to subscribers. Only a handful are known, with the text issued in both wrappers and cloth. 

[With:] POE. The Raven. New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, 1887. 8vo. Illustrations by W.L. Taylor. Original half-padded calf gilt (chipping and splits to spine).