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William Snelling, 1834
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"Phillis Wheatley's Poems," a review of Margaretta Matilda Odell's Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley
William Snelling, 1834
WHEATLEY PETERS, Phillis (c.1753-1784) – SNELLING, William J. (1804-1848). "Phillis Wheatley's Poems," a review of Margaretta Matilda Odell's Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a native African and a Slave. Dedicated to the Friends of the Africans (1834), published in volume XVI of The Christian Examiner and General Review. Boston: Charles Bowen, 1834.
Review notice of an early biography and reprint of Phillis Wheatley Peters's poems. Wheatley Peters's biography has long been obscured by the inventions and fancies of those seeking to use her life story for their own purposes, creating a legend which is still being untangled today. The anti-slavery Margaretta Matilda Odell claimed to be the grand-niece of John and Susanna Wheatley, and desired to turn her interest in Phillis toward garnering sympathy for her cause—regardless of her actual knowledge of the intimate details of her subject's life. Remarkably, the author of this review manages to introduce even more falsehoods into Wheatley Peters's life story. He places her firmly in the ranks of history's tragic heroines, writing that: "the vicissitudes of Phillis's life ought to excite as much interest as the fate of Lady Jane Gray, or Mary Queen of Scots, or any other heroine, ancient or modern." Robinson 1834.b.2.
Octavo (215 x 137mm). pp. 169-174. Contemporary black half morocco and marbled boards, marbled edges (wear to extremities).
William Snelling, 1834
WHEATLEY PETERS, Phillis (c.1753-1784) – SNELLING, William J. (1804-1848). "Phillis Wheatley's Poems," a review of Margaretta Matilda Odell's Memoir and Poems of Phillis Wheatley, a native African and a Slave. Dedicated to the Friends of the Africans (1834), published in volume XVI of The Christian Examiner and General Review. Boston: Charles Bowen, 1834.
Review notice of an early biography and reprint of Phillis Wheatley Peters's poems. Wheatley Peters's biography has long been obscured by the inventions and fancies of those seeking to use her life story for their own purposes, creating a legend which is still being untangled today. The anti-slavery Margaretta Matilda Odell claimed to be the grand-niece of John and Susanna Wheatley, and desired to turn her interest in Phillis toward garnering sympathy for her cause—regardless of her actual knowledge of the intimate details of her subject's life. Remarkably, the author of this review manages to introduce even more falsehoods into Wheatley Peters's life story. He places her firmly in the ranks of history's tragic heroines, writing that: "the vicissitudes of Phillis's life ought to excite as much interest as the fate of Lady Jane Gray, or Mary Queen of Scots, or any other heroine, ancient or modern." Robinson 1834.b.2.
Octavo (215 x 137mm). pp. 169-174. Contemporary black half morocco and marbled boards, marbled edges (wear to extremities).
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