Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. AQS from "Urania: A Rhymed Lesson"

A Victorian scrapbook album page entirely engrossed by American writer Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894), comprised of an autograph quotation signed as "Oliver Wendell Holmes." Signed at Boston, Massachusetts on November 2, 1846. The quotation is an 8-line excerpt from Holmes's epic poem "Urania: A Rhymed Lesson," originally read before an audience of the Mercantile Library Association on October 14, 1846. The leaf is lightly toned. Isolated water stains, darkening, and wrinkling mostly confined to the edges. Isolated minor loss in the bottom left corner, and adhesive traces verso. Else very good to near fine. 8.625" x 11.125."

Holmes recited his poem "Urania: A Rhymed Lesson" before a gathering of the Mercantile Library Association just two weeks before signing this autograph. The Mercantile Library Association was established in 1820 to provide enrichment opportunities for laborers and tradesmen by offering them regular lecture series, a subscription library, and a reading room. The Association welcomed many famous poets, writers, and intellectuals during its peak during the 1840s-1850s, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Horace Mann, and Henry Ward Beecher.

Holmes's excerpt comes from the beginning (the 14th stanza) of his long poem exploring the American--and specifically--the New England experience. The title of the poem refers to Urania, the Greek muse of astronomy, who in later Western tradition was invoked as the muse of Christian poetry.

In full:

"Too oft the light that led our earlier hours
 Fades with the perfume of our cradle flowers,
The clear, cold question chills to frozen doubt;
Tired of beliefs, we dread to live without;
Oh then, if Reason waver at thy side,
Let humbler Memory be thy gentle guide;
Go to thy birth-place, and, if faith was there,
Repeat thy father's creed, thy mother's prayer!

Oliver Wendell Holmes
Boston Nov. 2d 1846."

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. is best known as an American poet, novelist, and essayist, but he was also a doctor, medical reformer, trained lawyer, and inventor of the stereoscope. Holmes's elegy "Old Ironsides" (1830) rallied support for the conservation of the Revolutionary War era warship "U.S.S. Constitution" and first made the writer famous. His "Breakfast-Table" series, a collection of essays set at a New England boarding house and published in book form in 1858, charmed his readers. Holmes befriended other literary luminaries like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Ralph Waldo Emerson.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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