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 GRANDSON & SIGNED BY WILLIAM ALLEN - Octavo, dark brown cloth titled and decorated in gilt on the spine with decorations & rules in blind on the covers. The covers are rubbed, soiled and stained with wear to the corners and an abrasion to the rear cover. There is evidence of early worming along the rear joint. There is a two inch split to the cloth along the bottom of the rear joint. The head and tail of the spine are chipped. 237 pages, illustrated with an engraved portrait frontispiece by J. Sartain after T. Badger. Several signatures (i.e. group of pages) are lightly pulled and the top inner corner of the first few pages are dampstained. The pages are slightly darkened with some occasional foxing and there is foxing to the fore edge of the book. Good.

First edition.

Inscribed by the author to his grandson on the front endpaper: "To my gransdon / John Wheelock Allen, / from his grandfather, / Wm. Allen. / Northampton, / May 27, 1864".

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; JOHN WHE

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