{"product_id":"1844-parlour-songster","title":"1844 PARLOUR SONGSTER. Early American Romantic or Bawdy Songster with Original Songs.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA very scarce romantic songster from the popular presses of Turner \u0026amp; Fisher. Located in Manhattan at\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e 74 Chatham Street in New York, this area of the city was a hub of all manner of popular entertainment. It boasted hotels, saloons, theaters, and eventually vaudeville. It was also contained Printing House Square, a primary publisher of cheap ephemera, musical and otherwise. Then there was the underbelly and night life; the entire corridor was marked by poverty, homelessness, public drunknenness, and rampant prostitution. Turner \u0026amp; Fisher turned out exactly the sort of \"popular literature\" devotional writers warned about; emerging as a sort of metaphorical gutter monster from this seedy nineteenth-century neighborhood.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIt is popular today with historians and academics today to see the songs as coded with double-entendre. This particular volume contains two notable examples, i.e. \u003cem\u003eListen to My Wild Guitar\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eOh Lady, Touch Thy Lute Again\u003c\/em\u003e.  \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNone in the trade and not offered at auction since 1917. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Parlous Songster, Containing a Superior Collection of the Most Popular Sentimental Songs, Many of which are now First Printed. New York. Turner \u0026amp; Fisher. 1844. 240pp.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGood + condition in original publisher's cloth; through at extremities as shown. Stable. Fly leaf and frontis not present. All else good + with some light handling and occasional turns \/ bumps at corners. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Specs Fine Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44214635364388,"sku":null,"price":225.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0093\/3910\/9435\/files\/05-31-2026SpecsFineBooks.jpg?v=1780351997","url":"https:\/\/specsfinebooks.com\/products\/1844-parlour-songster","provider":"Specs Fine Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}