The Gift: A Christmas And New Year's Present 1845

Philadelphia: Cary and Hart, 1845. First edition. leather_bound. Contemporary full brown calf binding, black leather spine label printed in gilt. Aeg. Near fine. 300 pages. 22 x 15 cm. Second issue without date on title or copyright date, and without printed title. First appearance of THE PURLOINED LETTER, with twelve steel engraved plates including frontispiece with tissue guards. Also included are works by Emerson, Longfellow and N.P. Willis. BAL 16138. HEARTMAN & CANNY p.89. The Poe short story clean and fresh. Some marginal spotting, toning to tissue guards. Tight, decorative and clean Victorian binding with some loss to gilt in the arabesque and star motifs. Owner signature dated 1857.