James Russell Lowell autograph manuscript verse signed, 4.5" x 7", dated August 31, 1857, from Harvard College, Cambridge. In this playful poetic quatrain, Lowell writes:
“There is not one of all the Muses
But, if you ask her aid, refuses,
Nor one of all the triple Graces
That will not, if provoked, make faces;
And conscious autographs I know well are
Are nothing worth –”
Boldly signed “J. R. Lowell” at conclusion.
This is a poem that has to be one of the most charming responses ever to an autograph request. Showing Lowell’s wit and awareness of autograph collecting even in his own day.
With One of a Kind Collectibles LOA.