Author: Allen, William.
Title: Wunnissoo, or the Vale of Hoosatunnuk, a Poem, with Notes. By William Allen, D.D.
Description: Boston: John P. Jewett and Company, 1856. 1856. INSCRIBED TO HIS SON & SIGNED BY WILLIAM ALLEN - Octavo, brown cloth titled and decorated in gilt on the spine with decorations & rules in blind on the covers. The covers are rubbed, soiled and spotted. The head and tail of the spine are chipped. 237 pages, illustrated with an engraved portrait frontispiece by J. Sartain after T. Badger. The text block is cracked opposite the title page and the first signature (i.e. group of pages) is lightly pulled. The pages are slightly darkened with some occasional foxing and there is foxing to the fore edge. Good.

First edition.

Inscribed by the author to his son on the front endpaper: "To Rev. John Wheelock Allen, / With much love, / From his Father, / William Allen. / Northampton, / Sept. 15, 1856".

The American biographer, scholar and academic William Allen (1784-1868) graduated from Harvard College in 1802 and worked there as assistant librarian. His substantial "American Biographical and Historical Biography" was the first work of general biography published in the United States (1809). Succeeding his father as pastor of the Church in Pittsfield, he was elected as a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1814. Allen served as President of Dartmouth University and subsequently as President of Bowdoin College. Among his literary accomplishments were the publication of a supplement to Webster's dictionary, as well as "Junius Unmasked", "Psalms and Hymns", "Memoirs of Dr. Eleazar Wheelock and of Dr. John Codman", "A Discourse at the Close of the Second Century of the Settlement at Northampton, Massachusetts", "Wunnissoo, or the Vale of Hoosatunnuk", etc.

The author's notes published at the end attest to his interest in Indian culture. His interest manifists itself from the get go, starting with the book's very title: "Wunnissoo, the name of the leading character in this poem, means in the Hoosatunnuk language, 'She is beautiful;' and it must be allowed to be a word of a sweet Indian sound". A few pages later, the author dwells on the origin of Indian tribes. Good .

Keywords: LITERATURE; POETRY; WILLIAM ALLEN; WUNNISSOO, OR THE VALE OF HOOSATUNNUK; A POEM, WITH NOTES; NINETEENTH CENTURY; 19TH CENTURY; ENGRAVING; FRONTISPIECE; J. SARTAIN; T. BADGER; FIRST EDITION; 1ST EDITION; INSCRIBED; SIGNED; AUTOGRAPH; INSCRIPTION;THE REV.

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