The Library of Stephen J. Farber

8vo (216 x 127 mm). Engraved illustrations. (Spotting throughout, marginal toning.) Contemporary half calf (extremes rubbed).

FIRST APPEARANCE IN BOOK FORM OF "THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER."

As the sun rose on 13 September 1814, a sixteen-ship attack force began to fire on Fort McHenry, located on the southern shore of Baltimore, Maryland. For twenty-five hours, British forces would bombard the fort. Aboard one of the truce ships was a young lawyer and poet named Francis Scott Key, who watched the bombardment with ever-growing anxiety, certain that when the smoke cleared, the American stars and stripes would be replaced with the British Union Jack. It was to his great relief that, as the sun rose on a new day, not only did the American flag continue to wave over Fort McHenry, but the one that had flown over the fort the previous day had been replaced with one that was nearly twice as large. Immediately, he set to writing the poem, "The Defence of Fort M'Henry."

Upon being released by British forces, Key had the poem printed as a broadside, which was reprinted in newspapers throughout the northeast. Eventually, its lyrics were set to the tune of a popular British melody, "The Anacreontic Song" by John Stafford Smith. The editor of the Analectic Magazine, Washington Irving, published the first appearance of Key's poem in book form in this November 1814 issue.