- Page Title
- Bates, Katharine Lee | Complete autograph transcript of "America the Beautiful" | Fine Manuscript and Printed Americana | Books & Manuscripts | Sotheby's
- Brand
- sothebys.com
- Type
- Other
- First Seen
- 5/8/2024
- Last Seen
- 9/8/2024
- Domain
- sothebys.com
- URL
- https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2024/fine-manuscript-and-printed-americana/bates-katharine-lee-complete-autograph-transcript
- Description
- <p>Bates, Katharine Lee</p><p>Autograph transcript signed ("Katherine Lee Bates") of <em>America the Beautiful</em>, [after 1911]</p><p><br></p><p>One page (234 x 142mm), mounted and framed; rectangular panel stain to center of leaf; not examined out of frame. [with:] Selected Poems of Katherine Lee Bates. <em>Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1930</em>. 8vo. Cloth-covered boards. Dust jacket; chipped and worn, split at joints, marginal water stains. [and:] A leaf with newspaper clippings about Bates and a greeting card with her poem, Christmas.</p><p><br></p><p><u>A scarce complete autograph transcript of one of the most popular patriotic songs in United States history.</u></p><p><br></p><p>"O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountains majesties, above the fruited plain!"</p><p><br></p><p>The poem was written in 1893, but revised in both 1904 and 1913; the text of this copy is the third and final version of the poem, as indicated by the first line of the third stanza.</p><p><br></p><p>Bates later recalled the inspiration for the poem, which was written during a summer spent teaching at Colorado College, Colorado Springs: "One day some of the other teachers and I decided to go on a trip to 14,000-foot Pikes Peak. We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. I was very tired. But when I saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse."</p><p><br></p><p><em>America the Beautiful</em> was first published in <em>The Congregationalist</em>, a weekly journal, for Independence Day, 1895, but gained wider popularity when the first revised text appeared in <em>The Boston Evening Transcript</em> on 19 November 1904. Set to the music of the hymn "Materna" by Samuel A. Ward, Bates's lyric is as well known and popular as Francis Scott Key's "Star-Spangled Banner."</p><p><br></p><p><u>A truly scarce and exceptional piece of Americana.</u></p>
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