Autograph manuscript of the poem "Mary Booth," together with an autograph note to his publisher directing the poem's placement in his forthcoming collected Poems. N.p., [1892], the note dated "3 Oct."

Item Details

PARSONS, Thomas William (1819–1892).

Fair-copy manuscript of the poem "Mary Booth," in an unidentified hand [possibly a copyist's], with the  "Thomas W. Parsons" byline possibly autograph (cf.  ALS & other writings in the Digital Commonwealth collection).

Two manuscript leaves, tipped to a backing sheet (typed deaccession on verso: "DEACCESSIONED FROM CONNECTICUT HISTORICAL SOCIETY").

1. Autograph manuscript of the poem "Mary Booth," headed "Mary Booth" and "Thomas W. Parsons," the latter apparently in the poet's hand ; minor loss to upper corner.
2. Autograph instruction, addressed "H.O.H. & Co. / Riverside," directing that the "form (Mary Booth)" be placed "between Her Epitaph and Louisa's Grave in Dr. Parsons's Poems," and asking that a list of poems be sent to the Boston office "to serve in the end as the Table of Contents." Initialed at end "M. H."? 

Parsons's Poems was issued by Houghton, Mifflin in 1893 — printed at the Riverside Press, per the copyright-page imprint "Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Co." —  with "Mary Booth" appearing on p. 44. The recipient of the present note, dated " 3 Oct." --within a month of the poet's death--  is "H.O.H. & Co./Riverside," the volume's printer. Notably, the published sequence places "Mary Booth" before both "Her Epitaph" and "Louisa's Grave" rather than between them as instructed here, suggesting the placement was reconsidered after this note was written — a small but tangible trace of the posthumous volume taking shape.

Provenance: Connecticut Historical Society (deaccessioned, per stamp).