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This is a beautiful 1884 edition of The Works of William Shakespeare, edited by W.G. Clark and W. Aldis Wright, and published by the notable Victorian firm Belford, Clarke & Company (Chicago/New York)—with a fascinating story behind it. Inscribed on the fly leaf is an impassioned poem written by a 24-year-old farmer and laborer named Alonzo P. Hill to his neighbor and (much too young) crush, Annie Daniels, age 13.
A.P. Hill and Annie Daniels are both verified to have lived in Blue Mound per the 1880 census. Their respective ages in 1885 come from that census of a very small town.
Shortly after Annie received this volume, in 1885, the whole family moved away from Blue Mound to Nebraska. One can only speculate why.
The volume’s later owner, Brooke Sanner (later Brooke Sanner Cook) of Baltimore’s Bryn Mawr School, wrote her own name in the book sometime after 1940 or so. How she came across the book—and the ultimate tale of Annie and Alonzo—is a mystery.
This is, on its own, a gorgeous example of Victorian mass-market shelf candy classic. The embossed cover and “fancy” binding may have been meant for the ordinary person but probably consisted of a significant portion of Alonzo’s income at the time. One wonders how little Annie—only 13 at the time—received it, and whether the relationship between the two (whatever it may have consisted of)—contributed to the family moving away.
This edition features a striking \"Aesthetic Movement\" decorative cloth binding with blind-stamped floral patterns and bright gilt lettering on the spine and front board.
The opportunity to find out more of this moving historical story should tempt anyone interested in that period of American social history.
