[Journal]: Original Religious and Romantic Poetry

Fairfield County, Ohio: 1848-1868.

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Hardcover. Quarto. Measuring 8" x 10.5". Three quarter black leather with tan paper boards. 109pp. Approximately 9,000 handwritten words. Edgewear with some abrasions on the boards, very good with near fine lightly age-toned pages.

A personal journal kept by Fairfield County, Ohio native, Elizabeth Betsy Smith (née Runkle), written between 1848 and 1868 filled with her original poetry and writing. The poetry is focused primarily on morose topics such as forlorn and unrequited love, which is quite peculiar as Runkle at the time was married to Henry Smith: “My love so sweet so unkind, I’ve wooed as blossoms woo the wind, and yet he is so blind, so blind.” Her signature changes between her maiden name and married name which could explain the theme of lost and estranged love in her poetry: “Beloved I am sad and worn with guilt and fear, I dream, wanton and keeping, there alone, Life’s bath before me seems so long and dreary, Without that love which once was all my own.” Even when the poems start off energetic and themed around love and life, fading to talk about death and isolation. Certain poems have lines crossed out, portions added, and corrections made.

Other ephemera includes newspaper clippings, letters, and laid in poems. Within the newspaper clippings are poems with religious themes and articles about missionary travels and a guide to women about joining the covenant. There are also prayer cards dated later in 1889, a newspaper clipping of her son graduating from college in West Philadelphia, a few architectural drawings of the Smith's house and, we presume, a later letter from 1935 written by a younger family member discussing the family’s lineage.

An interesting collection of original poems written by a melancholy woman living in Ohio from 1848 through to 1868.


Item #426127

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Item #426127 [Journal]: Original Religious and Romantic Poetry. Elizabeth Betsy SMITH, née Runkle.
[Journal]: Original Religious and Romantic Poetry
[Journal]: Original Religious and Romantic Poetry
[Journal]: Original Religious and Romantic Poetry
[Journal]: Original Religious and Romantic Poetry
[Journal]: Original Religious and Romantic Poetry
[Journal]: Original Religious and Romantic Poetry
[Journal]: Original Religious and Romantic Poetry
[Journal]: Original Religious and Romantic Poetry
[Journal]: Original Religious and Romantic Poetry