To retain, or not retain, that is the question

Sing mournfully, sing mournfullyOur dearly loved is gone.The gifted and the beautifulIs from our sight withdrawnThen let us sing her requiem nowIn this our parting hourAnd softly breathe her name, who wasOur fairest, loveliest flower

Mary, Mary, Mary

Mary Montague Minor (1855-1862), d. age 7

Poem written by her mother, Ellen PierrepontMinor in her copy of Felicia Hemans’ Works (Philadelphia: Grigg & Elliott,1843).

(circulating collection, Alderman Library,University of Virginia)

Charlotte Cocke Gordon’s copy of Felicia Hemans’ Works (1839), held by the library ofUniversity of Virginia. She received the book as a Christmas gift in 1840, when she was22 and unmarried. Her son William died in West Texas, near Fort Concho, at the age of 28.

Edgar Allan Poe: His Life, Letters, and Opinions, by John H. Ingram [London, 1880] (UVA copy):

“My father -- Revd. Jno. Collins McCabe -- who was then a young man, a contributor toThe Messenger & an intimate of Poe's, once told me that he said one day to Poe -- 'Poe,Mr. White is greatly hurt at you having spoken unkindly of him.' 'McCabe,' said Poewarmly, 'I never said a word against Mr. White in my life.' 'Did you never say he was afool?' 'Oh!,' said Poe with a relieved air, 'I did say that he was a d----d fool, but Mr. Whitecan't object to that -- every body knows it.' W. Gordon McCabe. March 26th. 1882.”

Traced hand (John A. McSparran’s?) in The Works of Robert Burns (London, 1825), facing original poem, “On Burns the Poet / June 4, 1851” by James McSparran(circulating collection, Alderman Library, University of Virginia)

http://booktraces.org

Jane C. Slaughter,self portrait, age 18

(Slaughter family papers,University of Virginia Special Collections)