Rare series of poems by Lydia H. Sigourney, many on "Western" themes related to the Westward Expansion, slavery and Native Americans, and transcendentalism including The Mohawk Warrior; Virginia Dare; Prayer on Bunker Hill; Power's Statue of the Greek Slave; Late Journey of Henry Clay; Divine Wisdom, Friendship with Nature; Indian Summer; Hermit of the Falls; Falls of the Yantic; Emigrant Mother; First Missionary, etc.
Beautiful inscribed and signed by Sigourney on the ffep.
Her important poem, Needle, Pen, and Sword, discussing the power of the pen, includes her view of the role of legal authority as an agent of liberty and justice:
And a flourish of mine can his prison ope,
From the gallows its victim save;
Break off the treaty kings have bound,
Make the oath of a nation an empty sound
And to liberty lead the slave.
Lydia Howard Sigourney's [1791-1865] was an influential literary voice across multiple fields of social advocacy for the oppressed. By 1810, Sigourney was running a school for impoverished girls that taught Hebrew and Latin and, controversially, educated young black girls as well. From then until her death, she was always a friend to women, the poor, and the slave and free men through her writings and public work.
Sigourney, L. H. The Western Home, and Other Poems. Philadelphia. Parry & McMillan. 1854. 359pp.
A very good copy, bound in cloth, generally solid, bright and clean pages, with light foxing.
