On the Death of a Child, Five Years of Age. (By Phillis Wheatly, a Negro.)" [In, The Arminian Magazine: Consisting of Extracts and Original Treatises on General Redemption. Volume I. For the Year 1789]

Philadelphia: Prichard & Hall, 1789. Good.. [1]p. in a slightly incomplete omnibus volume. Quarto. Contemporary sheep. Some chipping and wear to boards. Scattered foxing throughout. A notable American periodical appearance by the first African American poet, Phillis Wheatley, in an issue of the first sectarian magazine published in the United States. Page 403 of the present volume includes Wheatley's poem, "On the Death of a Child, Five Years of Age. (By Phillis Wheatly, a Negro)," first collected in 1773. Published five years after the poet's death and hinting at her literary connection to the Methodists, the poem here has a variant title (changed from the original "On the Death of a Young Lady of Five Years of Age," and inextricably cuts the final sixteen lines. Sadly, Wheatley's literary reputation cooled in America in the last decade of her life though the Methodists in America and England did much to keep her verses in front of the public in those later years. The Arminian Magazine was founded by John Wesley in 1778 and published under the same title until 1798, and in some form until 1969. The present 18th-century American magazine appearance of Wheatley's poetry is among the less frequently encountered in the present market; her periodical appearances are more commonly seen in publications such as The Gentleman's Magazine and The Annual Register.