My personal valentine, Katherine, suggested I post something appropriate on this most romantic day of the year. Hence, after wracking my brain for something that would relate magazines to valentine's day I've come up with a pot-pourri of delights.
First, a graphic beauty. A cover done for the old humor Life Magazine in February 1905 by my favorite illustrator, Maxfield Parrish. "St. Valentine". No further explanation needed.
And for those inclined to the literary- I offer another gem from my collection- the incredibly rare and valuable first published appearance of the reclusive Emily Dickinson, in the Amherst College publication The Indicator, for February 1850, a letter (to George H. Gould?) entitled "Valentine Eve". As all of her work published during her lifetime, it is unsigned. Her next appearance would be two years hence, a poem, "A Valentine" in a newspaper, Springfield Republican of February 20, 1852. (Joel Myerson, Emily Dickinson, A Descriptive Bibiography, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1984, items D1 and D2 respectively).
for additional information on the relationship between E.D., Amherst and The Indicator see:
And to close out this Valentine's Day trio, since Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote perhaps the most romantic poem of all time "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways, I include for your reading pleasure a complete reproduction of the still previously unknown Browning essay "Madame Luce and Her School" in the equally unknown 1857 literary magazine, published somewhere in the southern Mississippi valley, The Titan.
My $100 prize remains unclaimed so I am increased the reward to $250. Click the link below to read the full blog post about my quest.
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