Songs From the Golden Gate
Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1895. Keith, William. First Edition. Hardcover. First printing, duodecimo size, 171 pp. Near fine. Item #23111202
Ina Donna Coolbrith (1842-1928) lived a life rather unusual for a woman of her days. She moved with her family at the age of seven years from Illinois to California, in 1868 Bret Harte engaged her as one of his co-editors of the "Overland Monthly", she was an influence on Cincinnatus Heine Miller, to whom she recommended the pseudonym "Joaquin Miller", was the first Poet Laureate of California, and mentored other young writers including Jack London.
In order to support her family she worked for the Oakland Public Library and the San Francisco Mercantile Library, as well as serving as the librarian for the Bohemian Club. She was writing a history/memoir of San Francisco when the manuscript was destroyed by the fire following the earthquake of 1906; she eventually settled with her niece in Berkeley where a portrait of her was taken by Ansel Adams, dying on Leap Day, 1928. After her death it was disclosed to the public that she was the niece of Latter Day Saint movement founder Joseph Smith, Jr.
This anthology of poems by California's first state Poet Laureate is number twenty-one on the Zamorano 80 list and and contains four illustrations by noted California artist William Keith (1838-1911), a long-time friend of John Muir.
___DESCRIPTION: Green cloth boards with a narrow gilt ruled border, vignette of a lyre and gilt lettering on the front, gilt lettering on the spine, top edge gilt, tissue-guarded frontispiece being a half-tone reproduction of one of Keith's illustrations, the other three interspersed throughout the text; duodecimo size (7 1/8" by 4 3/4"), pagination: [i-v] vi-x [2] [1]-159.
___CONDITION: Near fine, the boards clean, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the gilt top edge bright and undimmed, the interior clean and bright, and entirely free of prior owner markings; the corners very gently bumped with a hint of rubbing, head and tail of spine also with a hint of rubbing, else fine; overall, a remarkable example.
___CITATION: Zamorano 80, no. 21.
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Price: $150.00