Passion-Flowers.
"Then freeing up her pent-up soul she rushed in frantic race, and fragments of the miller's wheel threw in the miller's face": First Edition of Julia Ward Howe's Passion-Flowers; inscribed by her to fellow author Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz
Passion-Flowers.
HOWE, Julia Ward.
$1,800.00
Item Number: 109025
Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1854.
First edition of Julia Ward Howe’s first book. Octavo, original cloth with gilt titles to the spine, publisher’s advertisements at rear dated 1853. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper prior to publication, “Lizzie Agassiz from her Julia Howe Dec. 22nd 1853.” The recipient, Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz was an American author, naturalist, and the co-founder and first president of Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In very good condition with the gilt to the spine bright. An exceptional association.
Howe's first book was written in secret and published anonymously without her husband's knowledge by Longfellow and Ticknor, who had previously rejected one of her husband's manuscripts. The content was considered divisive as it overtly voiced Howe's frustrations with gender inequality and the confines of gender roles in 19th century America.
