Treasures of The New York Public Library

American literature

<i>Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, /<br />
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore "¦</i><br><br><br />
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Edgar Allan Poe. <i>Le corbeau</i>. <i>The Raven</i>. French translation by Stéphane Mallarmé, with illustrations by Ã‰douard Manet. Brush-and-ink transfer relief plate or transfer lithography. Paris: Richard Lesclide, 1875.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Print Collection, S.P. Avery Collection.<br><br><br />
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Manetʼs Illustrations for Poeʼs "The Raven"

The cover of the first (and last) issue of <i>Fire!!</i> was designed by Aaron Douglas (1899-1979), who was considered the foremost visual artist of the Harlem Renaissance. Douglas combined angular Cubist rhythms and seductive Art Deco dynamism with traditional African and African American imagery to develop a radically new visual vocabulary that evoked both current realities and hopes for a better future.<br><br><br />
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<i>Fire!! A Quarterly Devoted to the Younger Negro Artists</i>. New York. 314 West 138th Street. Vol. 1, no. 1 (November 1926).<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division.<br><br><br />
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"Fire Burns": An Avant-garde Journal for the Harlem Renaissance

Kerouac probably began playing a simplified form of his fantasy baseball game at age nine, although the earliest materials surviving in the Jack Kerouac Archive date only from 1935, when he was thirteen; he continued modifying the game until as late as 1965. At left: 4 of a set of 66 fantasy baseball cards, with their wood box housing and toothpicks used in an early version of the game (1946 or earlier); at right: 4 of a set of 247 fantasy baseball cards, in which the verbal descriptions are expressed as symbols, with their black cardboard dispenser (ca. 1956).<br><br><br />
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Jack Kerouac. Sets of cards (with boxes) for playing fantasy baseball, with verbal descriptions of the results of the bat hitting the ball, ca. 1946 or earlier (left) and ca. 1956 (right).<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, Jack Kerouac Archive. Â© and reproduced courtesy of John G. Sampas, legal representative of the estates of Jack and Stella Kerouac.<br><br><br />
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Fantasy Sports and the King of the Beats: From the Jack Kerouac Archive

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<i>Yeso, la strega del Colorado</i>. Firenze: Nerbini, 1923.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Rare Book Division.<br><br><br />
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"Impossible Trash": Dime Novels

The engraved frontispiece portrait of Phillis Wheatley in the first edition of her <i>Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral</i>.<br><br><br />
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Phillis Wheatley. <i>Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral</i>. London: Printed for A. Bell, Bookseller, Aldgate; and sold by Messrs. Cox and Berry, King-Street, Boston, 1773.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division.<br><br><br />
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The First Book Published by an African American Poet

The opening page of the heavily revised draft of "Passage to India," one of Whitman's grandest poetic achievements.<br><br><br />
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Walt Whitman. "Passage to India." Autograph manuscript, [1869].<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Rare Book Division, Oscar Lion Collection.<br><br><br />
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Cosmic Purposes: Whitman's "Passage to India"

Title page of the famous "Blue Book," Whitman's personal copy of the 1860-61 edition of <i>Leaves of Grass.</i><br><br><br />
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Walt Whitman. <i>Leaves of Grass</i>, with the author's autograph emendations and with manuscript pages affixed to several leaves of text [the "Blue Book"]. Boston: Thayer and Eldridge, 1860-61 (2nd issue).<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Rare Book Division, Oscar Lion Collection.<br><br><br />
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Walter Whitman's "Blue Book": Fired for Cause

This portrait was the last item presented to the Oscar Lion Collection, the Library's great collection of Whitmaniana, by Mr. Lion before his death in 1971. "It is a beautiful and arresting face," said Henry Miller of this haunting image, "and there is deep quest in the eyes."<br><br><br />
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[Gabriel Harrison?]. Portrait photograph of Walt Whitman (the "Christ likeness"). Daguerreotype, 1853 or 1854.<br><br />
The New York Public Library, Rare Book Division, Oscar Lion Collection.<br><br><br />
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Walt Whitman: The "Christ Likeness"