Mormoniad [ A Poem]

Boston: A. Williams & Co., 1858 Hard cover, 16mo, ( measuring 4 3/4 x 7 1/4 inches), in original blind stamped brown cloth, with title in gilt to spine, top edge stained red, First Edition. (2), 100 (2)pp. Contemporary inscription on front free end paper in old ink: "Mr. Ben: Perley Poore, with the best of the Authors." The inscription begs the question of whether these anonymous individuals were, in fact, known to Poore, perhaps in his capacity as a Boston journalist. Condition: Good. The boards show signs of some water damage, [said by the prior owner, a family descendant, to be due to a 1959 fire which gutted the majority of an eccentric sixty-room house.] There is moderate bubbling and wear to the cloth on both boards. The head and foot of the spine are worn. The interior of the book shows slight water damage to the ffeps. although the inscription is not effected. The volume is slightly cocked, the pages are age-toned as expected, with light foxing. *** The Mormoniad has been described as a "scurrilous satire in verse " concerning President Buchanan's prosecution of the Mormon War. This volume spares no political party name-calling, and is a reminder of just how contentious the period prior to the Civil War was. The book's publication took place only a year beyond the Mountain Meadow Massacre of September 1857, during which a California-bound wagon-train traveling through Utah Territory was set upon by Morman foot soldiers (some disguised as Native Americans) in a violent act which left 120 murdered men, women and children. *** BENJAMIN PERLEY POORE (1820-1887), born near Newburyport, Massachusetts, was the first well-known 'national correspondent' of nineteenth century political reporting. He began his experience as a foreign correspondent over the signature 'Perley' during the 1840's, first with the Boston Atlas. He went on to edit the Boston Bee and American Sentinel, later becoming the Washington correspondent to The Boston Journal and other papers in the 1850's. Perley Poore also was a founding member, and the first president of, the Gridiron Club of Washington DC. He wrote political histories of the French, biographies of several American Civil War era presidents and generals, including a two-volume book on the Conspiracy Trial for the Murder of President Lincoln. He became known as Major Poore during the Civil War, commanding a Massachusetts regiment. Perhaps most famously however, Perley Poore wagered to push a wheelbarrow of apples from his home at Indian Hill Farm in West Newbury, Massachusetts the thirty-six miles to Boston, if Millard Fillmore outran John C. Fremont in the Presidential election of 1856, in Massachusetts. He lost the bet, and was welcomed by a crowd of "ten thousand cheering onlookers," and a military escort after the miserable two-day trudge into Boston. The Wheelbarrow Polka was written in celebration. Included with the book is a small ALS (quotation) by Maj. Perley Poore. Provenance: Benjamin Perley Poore descendants. Literature: WorldCat OCOLC 1732032. Sabin Americana 50753. RARE007561. Inscribed by Authors to Mr. Ben. Perely Poore. First Edition. Hardcover. Good.