9 8 



the city in that day. These volumes are interesting as con- 

 temporary compilations, circulated in this form among the 

 elite of the city of New York when the poems were fresh and 

 the talk of the town. 



The Bradford edition has been an extra-illustrator's hobby. 

 In the John D. Crimmins sale, Nov. 10, 1916, there was a 

 copy extended to four volumes by the insertion of about 460 

 portraits and plates, as well as some autograph letters. It 

 sold for $75. Less interesting extra-illustrated copies have 

 been sold for $50 or less. There is an extra-illustrated copy 

 in the New York Public Library. 



The Culprit Fay 



The Culprit Fay. By the late Joseph Rodman Drake. 



This poem was circulated in manuscript for many years 

 before it was printed. Extracts, more or less garbled, had 

 found their way into the London Atlicnccum and also in 

 American periodicals. It seems to have been printed entire 

 for the first time in the Boston Pearl, from which it was re- 

 printed, with the addition of an important head-note, in the 

 New-York Mirror, of July n, 1835, pp. 12-14. A portion 

 of the poem had aleady appeared in the Mirror some years 

 before, but the above printings seem to have been the first 

 complete presentations and preceded its appearance in the 

 authorized collection of Drake's poems which Dearborn pub- 

 lished in 1835 for the poet's daughter. It was in the Mirror, 

 too, that the authorized volume received attention by an excel- 

 lent review, in the issue of November 21, 1835, pp. 164-165. 



The / Culprit Fay / and / other Poems. / By Joseph Rod- 

 man Drake. / New-York: / George Dearborn, Publisher. / 



I835- 



8°; half-title, verso blank; frontispiece portrait of Drake, 

 painted by Rodgers and engraved on steel by T. Kelly, with in- 

 scription giving incorrectly the dates of birth and death of 

 Drake; steel engraved title-page by James Smillie after Robert 



