1837 Parlor book Hand Written Poems by Civil War General Matthew Whitaker Ransom

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

1837 Parlor book Hand Written Poems by Civil War General Matthew Whitaker Ransom:
$395.00

Up for sale is a really cool piece. It is an originalcopy of the “Parlor Scrapbook” by Willis Gaylord Clark from 1837. What makesthis item so unique are all of the hand-written inscriptions/poems in the book.The main poems look to have been written by Confederate General MatthewWhitaker Ransom (1826 – 1904) to his wife Martha. I acquired this book at anestate sale sale being held on the property of the Coolmore Plantation,which is a historic plantation house near Tarboro, Edgecombe County, NorthCarolina.

For those unfamiliar with Matthew Whitaker Ransom, he wasboth a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War anda Democratic U.S. Senator from the state of North Carolina between 1872 and1895. He was also the elder brother of General Robert Ransom. He graduated fromthe University of North Carolina in 1847. He was also the North CarolinaAttorney General and a member of the North Carolina General Assembly. Duringthe war he saw action in the battlesof Seven Pines, the Seven Days Battles, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Plymouth, Weldon, Suffolkand the siege of Petersburg. He was wounded three timesduring the Civil War and was with General Robert E. Lee at the surrender at Appomattox. (Wikipedia).

There look to be about 15 to 20 hand-written poems/inscriptionsin the book, with most of them being poetry and potentially mainly in the hand ofMatthew Whitaker Ransom himself, while with a few others it looks like this isnot the case. One poem looks to possibly be in French, while another poem looksto be in some form of either Greek or Cyrillic, which is the standard scriptfor writing in numerous languages such as Russian and Serbian. This is wheresome of the confusion resides on the poetry. My research has not been able toshow that Matthew Whitaker Ransom was versed in these other languages, so theauthors of these other pieces is unknown. The Cyrillic piece is signed, but Icannot read the poem or the signature. Some of the other pieces are signed bynames such as Bertram, Harinpiden (sp), and what looks like “Vale Vale”. A few ofthe poems are directly addressed to Martha herself, with at least one beingsigned “Matthew Whitaker” and a few others look to be initialed by him. I’m notcompletely sure but I’m guessing that most of the works were copied from bothknown and unknown poets, with the non-Whitaker signatures just stating who theyare by. I’m going to leave this up to someone with better research skills thanmyself to decipher what all is written in the book and by whom. Please notethat a few of the pieces are somewhat difficult to read due to the age of thebook. There is a fair amount of foxing on many of the pages, and a few pages dohave some water damage.

Notably there are 19 wonderful stories in the book which areaccompanied by 16 beautiful engravings by English painter, print maker, andengraver William Daniell (1769 – 1837). This was one of the last books thatDaniell engraved for since it was published the year that he died.

The binding of the book is still quite tight, though I amnot a book expert. The cover is warped a bit and doesn’t lie quite flat. Thevalue in this book is obviously not the book itself. The value is in what ishand-written inside and by whom.

Below are a series of links regarding Matthew WhitakerRansom

Don\'t miss this opportunity to own a truly unique piece of history! Free Shipping.