Southern Society
Baltimore, (MD): np, October 5, 1867 – March 28, 1868, with an undated supplemental issue, printed to complete a novel. 27 issues total, Volume One [all published; Southern Society was continued in a different format by The Leader, another periodical that last six month], each issue 8 pages. Double-folio (48 cm). 218 pp. Includes two complete novels, short stories, essays, poetry, historical and political articles and notices, book reviews, advertisements, etc. “A weekly journal of Literature, Society, and Art.” Prints the first publication of John Esten Cooke’s novel Hilt to Hilt; or, Days and Nights on the Banks of the Shenandoah in the Autumn of 1864: From the Mss. of Colonel Surry of Eagle’s Nest in the first 13 issues (Vol.1, No. 1, Oct. 5, 1867 through Vol. 1, No. 13, Dec. 28, 1867); the novel was published as a book in 1869 (BAL 3728, not mentioning this printing). A second complete novel, by Helen G. Beale (1834-1885; Fredericksburg teacher in schools for girls), Lansdowne, a Story of the South also appears here in the final14 issues (Vol. 1, No. 14 , Jan. 4, 1868 through Vol. 1, No. 26, March 28, 1868 and the undated No. 27); the novel, a romance of the Civil War, was apparently never published as a book (not in OCLC; her online obituary mentions only this serial publication). Laid in are an undated “Advertising Prospectus of Southern Society” (handbill, 8 ½ x 5 ½ inches, printed by Kelly & Piet) and a April 1, 1868 printed Southern Society receipt, completed in manuscript, made out to George H. Cooke for a 6-month subscription. OCLC locates a single copy of this periodical (Duke). Recently rebound in brown half-morocco and marbled boards, gilt spine title and rules. Some repair to several page edges (no loss of text, a very good copy. Item #70636
Price: $1,500.00