Tales of the Puritans. The Regicides. —The Fair Pilgrim. —Castine.
New Haven: Published by A.H. Maltby, 1831. First edition of this collection of three long stories on American colonial life. A good, tight copy of the first book by an author who would later propose the Baconian theory of Shakespeare authorship. Original light brown muslin with orange printed paper spine label. Twelvemo. [4], 13-300 pp. Despite odd pagination, work is complete. Item #17507
Delia Bacon (1811 – 1859) was an author, playwright, and Shakespeare scholar who, during her lectures, popularized the theory that Francis Bacon (no relation) was the true author of Shakespeare’s works. In 1856, William Henry Smith became the first to publish work advancing the theory, and Bacon published her first book on the theory, The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakespeare Unfolded, the next year. According to Bacon, “Shakespeare” was actually a group of writers including Francis Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Edmund Spenser.
Bacon began her career teaching at schools in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. In 1832, she beat Edgar Allan Poe for a short-story prize sponsored by the Philadelphia Saturday Courier. Bacon eventually developed the story, “Love’s Martyr,” into a play with Ellen Tree in the leading role. The play was never performed, but Edgar Allan Poe and the Saturday Courier praised the text. Once she began writing her criticism of Shakespeare’s works, Bacon became friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne, the latter of whom wrote an appreciative chapter in his Our Old Home (1863) after Bacon’s death. BAL 554. Wright, 219.
Price: $300.00