These books reflect my interest in the history of the State of Maine. I have chosen these books because they each offer something unique about Maine, the writer/editor of the book, or the book as an object itself. My wife and I are fans of the polymath Jonathan Fisher (who wrote and illustrated Scripture Animals described below) and we visit the Jonathan Fisher House Museum in Blue Hill, Maine as often as we can. I purchased my copy of Scripture Animals at auction over twenty years ago. The owner was a friend who has since passed. I have also included a work by Joshua Chamberlain of Brewer, Maine, the hero of Gettysburg and later Governor of Maine, as well as a work edited and published by John Neal of Portland, Maine, the self-taught writer, editor, and critic. Over the years my “Gently Mad” collecting interests have occasionally veered off in other interesting directions. However, my interest in collecting books, maps, pamphlets, and ephemera associated with my native state is still strong and remains an important focus of my collecting efforts.
Jonathan Fisher Scripture Animals, or Natural History of the Living Creatures Named in the Bible, Written Especially for Youth. Illustrated with cuts Portland: Published by William Hyde, 1834. 1000 copies printed.
Jonathan Fisher, born in 1768, attended Harvard in 1788 and moved to the small village of Blue Hill (in the District of Maine) in 1796 as the Pastor of the Congregational Church. Scripture Animals was Fisher’s masterpiece containing 139 wood cuts throughout the text. His woodcuts are handsome, stylish, and well composed. One of the most interesting engravings is of the Lion on page 157. Reportedly, Fisher saw a lion in Boston in 1794.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain Maine, Her Place in History: Centennial Address Delivered at the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, PA on November 4, 1876. Extra Illustrated. Augusta: Spraque, Owen and Nash, printers to the State, 1877.
First Edition/Unique Edition.
This was the only book by the Civil War Hero published in his lifetime. It is likely that this book came from the library of the noted Maine book collector Frank Cutter Deering. Deering was a passionate “grangerizer” and the quality in execution and design is consistent with other books grangerized by Deering. This book includes eight maps and sixty bound engravings, and one photograph all tipped in at related text sections.
Edgar Allan Poe; John Neal (editor) The Yankee, and Boston Literary Gazette No. 79, New Series, Nos 1-6. Boston: July-December 1829.
The Yankee was founded, edited, and published by John Neal in Portland, Maine. This book includes Neal’s review and excerpt from Poe’s “Heaven” subsequently published as “Fairyland”. Neal remarked “If EAP of Baltimore would but due himself justice, might make a beautiful and perhaps magnificent poem. There is a good deal here to justify such hope” (p.168). Poe later recalled Neal’s remarks as “the very first words of encouragement I ever remember to have heard.”
