Poems [...] In Two Volumes.

Bookseller Notes

A collection of poems - many about early America - by the enigmatic poet and playwright Samuel Low (b. 1765).Several of the verses celebrate US independence, with topics including the newly minted constitution and the Grand Federal Processions. 'Peace between America and Great-Britain' ruminates on the War of Independence: 'For Peace we sued, in days of deep distress / But sued in vain - our wrongs had no redress: / Let Britain, then, her own mad acts repent, / Her dwindled power, and fame eclipsed lament...'. Low's 'Ode on the Death of Washington' had been recited by Hodgkinson at the New York Theatre on 8 January 1800. Low had written to Washington in 1782, offering to dedicate a volume of verse to him, but Washington declined. In the New York Directory of 1794 Low is mentioned as a clerk in the Treasury Department, and in 1797-98 he appears as the first bookkeeper in the Bank of New York. He was evidently known in New York society; heading the list of subscribers (in vol. ii) is John Jacob Astor. The Astors intermarried with the similarly well-heeled French family, of New Hampshire. This copy with the bookplate of banker and socialite Amos Tuck French (1863-1941).