EVANGELINE: A Tale of Acadie Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth Poetry

American issue of the first British edition, one of 500 copies. Among the most widely read poems of the 19th century, Evangeline (1847) describes the betrothal of a fictional Acadian girl named Evangeline Bellefontaine to her beloved, Gabriel Lajeunesse, and their separation as the British deport the Acadians from Acadie [Nova Scotia] in the Great Upheaval. The poem then follows Evangeline across the landscapes of America as she spends years in a search for him. Printed by Henry Vizetelly: London, and bound by Benjamin Bradley: Boston with that firm's ticket to the rear pastedown. Octavo: vi, [2], 102, [2, ads] pp. with 45 illustrations and textual vignettes, all fine wood engravings by Henry Vizetelly after Jane E. Benham, Myles Birket Foster, and John Gilbert. In the publisher's black straight-grain morocco binding after James Hayday: London, with beveled boards; blind-stamped ruled borders and panels, band rules, floral ornamental spandrels, and central oval floral ornamental panel, and gilt-stamped black letter titling on the front panel; five raise bands, blind-stamped ruled bands, and floral compartment ornaments on the spine; and a repetition of the front panel on the rear, except without the titling. All edges gilt with diaper and floral ornamental gauffering, and cream coated endpapers. Period presentation inscription to the front flyleaf. An exquisite example. BAL 12331. Provenance: from the Publishers' Bookbindings collection of Ellen K. Morris and Edward S. Levin.