AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT (AM) with SIGNED CARD

3 May 1878. Manuscript. Near Fine. Scarce and desirable. Handwritten conclusion of Bryant's most famous poem and one of the best-known poems of the 19th century--"Thanatopsis"--on a 4-7/8" x 3-3/4" sheet of paper laid down on a slightly larger album size sheet; together with a small calling card SIGNED "William Cullen Bryant" and dated "May 3d 1878. With an engraved portrait of Bryant. There are a few changes in punctuation from the published version. Any MANUSCRIPT excerpt of this poem, especially such a substantial one as this, is quite rare.

So live that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan which moves
To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of Death,
Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him and lies down to pleasant dreams.




"Thanatopsis," written when Bryant was 15 years old and first published in THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW in September 1817, became Bryant's most celebrated poem and is often acknowledged as "the first great American poem." Although the poem remained popular throughout Bryant's life, autograph fair copies are surprisingly rare with only two examples offered at auction in the past 50 years, the last being at Christie's in 1993.