The Poet At The Breakfast-Table: His Talks With His Fellow-Boarders And The Reader

Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1872 Book. Very Good +. Hardcover. First Edition. 8vo. 418 pp, b&w frontis, text, index. First Edition, 1872 [BAL 8881]. "In 1856, the Atlantic or Saturday Club was created to launch and support The Atlantic Monthly. This new magazine was edited by Holmes's friend James Russell Lowell, and articles were contributed by the New England literary elite. For the magazine's first issue, Holmes produced a new version of two of his earlier essays, "The Autocrat at the Breakfast-Table". Based upon fictionalized breakfast table talk and including poetry, stories, jokes and songs, the work was favored by readers and critics alike and it secured the initial success of The Atlantic Monthly. The essays were collected as a book of the same name in 1858 and became his most enduring work, selling ten thousand copies in three days. Its sequel, The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, was released shortly after beginning in serialized installments in January 1859. Holmes's fame continued through his later years. The Poet at the Breakfast-Table was published in 1872. Written fifteen years after The Autocrat, this work's tone was mellower and more nostalgic than its predecessor; 'As people grow older', Holmes wrote, 'they come at length to live so much in memory that they often think with a kind of pleasure of losing their dearest possessions. Nothing can be so perfect while we possess it as it will seem when remembered.'" Minor edge wear with lightly soiled bottom edge margin to page 176, and age-toned text block edges. Clean, tight and strong binding with no underlining, highlighting or marginalia. Green cloth with gilt motif on front board, and gilt lettering to spine..