Signed book: Poems by Samuel Rogers. London: , 1834. Hardcover, 5.25 x 8, 295 pages. The lengthy 60 word signed inscription by Adams on a neatly inserted presentation page opposite the frontispiece engraving of Samuel Rogers reads, in full: “Mr. H.H. Emmons requests the acceptance by J H Meredith Esqr of two volumes of poems by the most pleasing English Poet of the present century – The Pleasures of Memory perhaps entitle him to a station among the druids of a former age, with the Bards of Avon and of Thames, and of Siloa’s brook that flow’d Fast by the Oracle of God. John Quincy Adams, Quincy 11. Octr 1847.” Book is housed in an attractive custom black, half brown leather, clamshell box with gilt spine titles. In very good condition, with considerable rubbing at edges of spine and covers, scattered foxing inside, detached front cover and opening pages, and spine a bit fragile.
This 60-word inscription is remarkable not only for its length but also for its literary references, including Shakespeare, Wordsworth and Milton’s “Paradise Lost” by the then 80-year-old Adams. Adams, a published poet—and the only US President to hold such a distinction—referred to this very inscription in a diary entry, in which he stated that he had been asked to write a poem but instead wrote prose. “I cannot write verse.” He also revealed that he was none too happy to do so. “I am almost entirely physically disabled from writing, and find it an insupportable task to be called upon for an autograph.” As was his habit, no doubt due to his advanced age and physical limitations, Adams penned the inscription on a separate page and then had the recipient insert the page into an appropriate volume. Truly a unique piece with documentable provenance. Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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