The Knickerbocker Gallery A Testimonial to the Editor of the Knickerbocker Magazine from Its Contributors [Knickerbocker Magazine] Washington Irving, Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Cullen Bryant, Henry Schoolcraft, Henry Longfellow, et al. (contributors) Americana,Journalism,Literature

Thick 8vo. Pp. xiv, [2], 16-505, [3].Engraved and regular title pages. Portrait frontis. with tissue guard. Illustrated with 48 steel engraved portraits with tissue guards. Bound in publisher's elaborate gilt- and blind-stamped morocco, gilt dentelles, spine with gilt-decorated compartments between five raised bands. A handsome, bright copy with just a few leaves showing minor toning. First edition, first state. Contains works by various contributors who constituted a brilliant flowering of American literature, among them Washington Irving, Nathaniel Willis, Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Cullen Bryant, Henry Schoolcraft, Samuel Osgood and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.From 1834 to its demise in 1859 the Knickerbocker Magazine was the foremost literary periodical of its day, overseen by editor Lewis Gaylord Clark. A literary milieu unto itself, the magazine was a projection of the editor's taste. Clark kept writers fed; in return, the American litterarati first offered Clark their latest work. Dickens, too, had his first American exposure in the Knickerbocker; on his visit to the US, his first lodging was at Clark's house. Lewis died in 1873. A very nice copy with handsome shelf appeal. See BAL 1033.