Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$375.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Entire issue (but NOT the entire bound Volume X for the year 1862) offered. Original printed wrappers. Very Good. '[Holmes's] namesake and son Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1841-1935) fought in the Civil War, after which his father wrote 'My Hunt after the Captain', published in the Atlantic Monthly in [December] 1862. It was a retelling of his search for his son who had been wounded in the battle of Antietam. Accusing his father of being a dilettante and using his ordeal for literary gain, their relationship suffered much animosity. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. would go on to become known as the 'Great Dissenter' after being appointed Juror in the United States Supreme Court in 1902 by President Theodore Roosevelt' (The Literature Network Web site). 'In September, 1862, I was sent to Frederick, Md., immediately after the battle of Antietam and assigned to Hospital No. 1, in charge of my since then life-long friend, Dr. Robert F. Weir. One little incident that occurred just after I got there was of a good deal of personal interest to me. After the battle, when the present Mr. Justice Holmes, of the Supreme Court of the United States, then a captain in the army, was wounded, his father, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, immediately left Boston to find him. The journey is embalmed in a delightful account, published soon afterward in the Atlantic Monthly under the title 'My Hunt after the Captain,' though he did not include in his story the following little incident: In 1862 Holmes, of course, was really at the height of his fame. The Atlantic Monthly had only been started a few years before, when I was a student in Brown University. In its very first number the publication of the 'Autocrat' began, and through this the entire country knew him well. One day at noon, having just finished the round of my ward, I was sitting in the office in undress uniform. The only other person present was the officer of the day, who, of course, was in full uniform. He was a gentleman whose knowledge of English literature was quite limited, and I fear the same criticism could be made upon his knowledge of surgery. The door opened and with a quick step a dapper little man, whom I instantly recognized by his portrait, though I had never seen him before, stepped in, glanced from one to the other, and quickly walked up to the officer of the day. He introduced himself by saying, 'My name is Holmes, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, of Boston. I have come in search of my son, who is wounded.' My colleague looked a him for a moment, scratched his head to gather his fugitive ideas together, and repeated in a half-absent tone: 'Holmes, Holmes, seems to me I have heard your name before, sir;' at which, in spite of paternal anxiety, the Autocrat's eyes twinkled with amusement' (W.W. Keen, Surgical Reminiscences of the Civil War, read April 5, 1905). The essay was first reprinted in two 1883 Houghton Mifflin books: Favorite Poems, and My Hunt After The Captain & Pages from an Old Volume of Life.
Seller: Ted Kottler, Bookseller, Redondo Beach, CA, U.S.A.