I 12 



being a prose literary criticism by Drake of a poem entitled. 

 'The Faithless Heart," for $40. It was derived from the 

 papers of Fitz-Greene Halleck and came into the possession of 

 Gen. James Grant Wilson, Halleck's literary executor. Ap- 

 parently not sold by Dodd, Mead and Co., it appeared in a 

 sale of effects of General Wilson, at the rooms of the Merwin- 

 Clayton Sales Co., May 10—12, 1910, item 268 of catalogue 

 322. 



An autograph poem, three verses of eight lines each ; fol- 

 lowed by another of two verses of four lines each in a different 

 handwriting, together two pages, octavo, was sold by the 

 Anderson Auction Co., of New York City, on December 2, 

 1909, in part 1 of the library of Louis J. Haber, of New York 

 City, item 524. for $6.50. The Drake poem, entitled: "Abe- 

 lard to Eloise," is the identical manuscript which was repro- 

 duced in Gen. James Gran: Wilson's Bryant and his Friends. 

 It has been offered recently (1917), in a catalogue of George 

 D. Smith, the well-known bookseller, item 224, for $50. 



A holograph letter of Drake to his sister, in regard to the 

 death of his grandmother, dated at New York. September 

 18, 1812, two pages, was sold at the Anderson Galleries, on 

 March 27, 1916, for $115. 



The first place of Drake manuscripts is easily held by a 

 volume sold by the Anderson Galleries, on May 1, 191 6, in 

 the Sanderson sale; but the volume did not come from that 

 collection, being added from a private source. It was bought 

 by a bookseller for $985 and has since been held at a much 

 higher price. Some time before the sale it was offered to me 

 for $500 through another dealer in autographs. This chief 

 Drake memento is an autograph manuscript note-book, en- 

 titled : " Trifles in Rhyme, by J. Rodman Drake, New York, 

 181 7." It has fifty closely written pages and title, octavo 

 size, all in Drake's hand, comprising autographic originals of 

 "The Culprit Fay," "The American Flag" (with Halleck's 

 last verse in autograph), "Niagara," and shorter poems. 

 The rest of the volume, more than 135 pages, have poems in 



