POETRY OF THE PACIFIC: Selections and Original Poems from the Poets of the Pacific States

San Francisco: Pacific Publishing Co., 1867. First edition. Minor wear to edges of covers, very good.. Original brown cloth, octavo, viii, (9)-415 pp. All edges gilt. This and 'Outcroppings' were the earliest California anthologies (Cowan). In fact, "Outcroppings" (published in 1865) was the primary stimulus for the creation of the larger, more inclusive anthology "Poetry of the Pacific" that followed after. Edited by Bret Harte, "Outcroppings: Being a Selection of California Verse" was a slender volume of only 40 poems by 19 poets and the resultant sins of ommission created a firestorm of criticism in the newspapers throughout Northern California - especially in the gold country. Sam Brannan stepped forward, offering to finance a new anthology that would truly represent the depth and breadth of California's poetic wealth. "Poetry of the Pacific" contains nearly 150 poems by some 75 poets, including John R. Ridge ("Yellow Bird"); Ina Coolbrith; Frank Soule; John Swett; Charles Warren Stoddard; May Wentworth; et al. Bret Harte is conspicuously absent - probably at his own request. Cowan p.675. See Walker "San Francisco's Literary Frontier " for an entertaining discussion of the rival books.