DEAD, YET LIVING. AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT KEENE, N.H. MEMORIAL DAY, MAY 30, 1884
Boston: Ginn, Heath, and Company, 1884. First Edition. Wraps. Reprinted from the Boston Daily Advertiser, by the Author's permission. First Separate Edition in self-printed stitched wraps (5" x 7-1/2"), 12 pages, of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s first printed speech, a celebration of his comrades, Union and Confederate, who gave their lives in the War Between the States, interwoven with themes of conciliation and high moral purpose, as well as the shadow the war still cast upon those who survived it. INSCRIBED to Mrs. Lockwood and SIGNED by the future Supreme Court Justice at the top of the front with "DEAD, YET LIVING" crossed out twice by Holmes. "Such hearts--ah me, how many!--were stilled twenty years ago; and to us who remain behind is left this day of memories. Every year--in the full tide of spring, at the height of the symphony of flowers and love and life--there comes a pause, and through the silence we hear the lonely pipe of death. Year after year lovers wandering under the apple trees and through the clover and deep grass are surprised with sudden tears as they see black veiled figures stealing through the morning to a soldier's grave. Year after year the comrades of the dead follow, with public honor, procession and commemorative flags and funeral march--honor and grief from us who stand almost alone, and have seen the best and noblest of our generation pass away." Holmes had recently been appointed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. This speech would make him a spokesman for the Union veterans of the Civil War, indeed for veterans of all American wars. Browning to the paper, wear to the very upper right corner. Very Good, important, and scarce. Item #018373
Mrs. Lockwood is undoubtedly Belva Lockwood, one of the first female lawyers in the United States. In 1879, she successfully petitioned Congress to be allowed to practice before the United States Supreme Court, becoming the first woman attorney given this privilege. In 1906, with Holmes sitting on the bench, Lockwood won an appeal for her client, the Cherokee nation, before the Supreme Court. Lockwood ran for president of the United States in 1884, the very year this speech was published, and in 1888 on the ticket of the National Equal Rights Party, becoming the first woman to appear on official ballots.
Price: $3,500.00