MARY ELIZA PERINE TUCKER Covers slightly worn, rubbed, slightly faded, very slight front cover ripple, corners bumped, spine ends bumped & beginning to fray. Spine and cloth board covers are straight - no warping. Prior owner owner ink signature on front blank end paper: "Charlotte Ripper - 1961". Original cloth binding, original tissue guards protecting both steel engraved portraits, original pages - no replaced or xeroxed pages. Frontspeice and title page slightly loose, still bound in. No missing, ripped, or cut out pages. No pen or pencil marks (except for above noted ink signature). ALL PAGES AND POEMS ARE PRESENT - no missing pages, book has been reviewed page by page, poem by poem, for detailed correctness of description. Overall a nice, clean, tight and well preserved copy in good to very good condition in my opinion.
Retail appraised value: $1,425.00 VG condition : Amworlds, rare book seller, Connecticut, for 1867 1st Edition “Poems” by Mary Tucker in VG condition


Born Mary Eliza Perine, 1838 - ?, Cahawba, Alabama, named after her mother who apparently died at birth. Married names:Mary Turcker and Mary Lambert. Books are authored under the name Mary Eliza Tucker. Father was Edward M. Perine, a French Huguenot born in Staten Island, New York. Mother was born in Providence, Rhode Island. Father was wealthy slave owner. Mary was educated in New York boarding school. Several biographical sketches list Mary Tucker as an African American or Mulato author, with apparent sympathies to the South during the Civil War. She was a Civil War era poet and editor who lived in the South, and in Philadelphia, during the Civil War, during which time she edited St. Matthew's Lyceum Journal and is known to have dedicated a published poem to Confederate General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard of New Orleans. Married John M. Tucker of Milledgeville, Georgia - they lost all property in the Civil War, Mary states: "...the Yankees and negro Incendiaries burning the family bible". After the war she left her husband and children, traveled to New York, and begain her writing career in poverty. Her first publication was the book in this auction: “ Poems”. She also wrote for the African Methodist Episcopal Church Review in 1885, and was a regular contributor to the New York "Ledger" and other papers. In 1871 she married Colonel James Lambert of the Philadelphia "Press". Her book, “Poems”, reads like an autobiography – where in she speaks of her childhood memories, slavery & slaves, romances, family, soldiers, the war, and her personal feelings for the humanity of the survivors in the devasted South. An extraordinarily rare & earthly account of life in the South told through poetic verse – before, during and after the Civil War – by an African American / French European woman. Easy to see why this book in its first edition printing is extremely rare and a most sought after American literary classic. Additional, later, works by Tucker are discussed on the internet, such as: "Life of Mark M. Pomeroy", [New York] Arno [1970]; "Confessions of a flirt -an ower true tale", Publisher: Milledgeville, Ga. : Boughton, Nisbet, Barnes & Moore, 1865.; "Life of Mark M. Pomeroy, ["Brick" Pomeroy ... ] a representative young man of America his early history character, and public services in defence of the rights of states, rights of the people, and interests of working men. Publisher: New York, G.W. Carleton, 1868.; "Where the Merced River flows : a song of Yosemite, with violin obligato", Publisher: Oakland, Calif. : La Cresta Co., ©1919. NOTE: Mary Tucker's own short autobiography can be read on the internet or found as follows: "Southland Writers", Philadelphia, 1870, pages 393-398, Ida Raymond, Editor.


Dedication Page: “ TO HONORABLE CHARLES J. JENKINS, GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA, AND TO MRS. GOVERNOR JENKINS, MY HONORED AND TRUSTED FRIENDS, MY FIRST VOLUME IS RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED”.

ILLUSTRATIONS: FRONTSPIECE STEEL ENGRAVED ILLUSTRATION OF MARY TUCKER ( wearing what appears to be a pendant with a picture of what appears to be an African American woman - most likely her mother). SECOND STEEL ENGRAVED ILLUSTRATION IS OF SALLIE H. PERINE ( Mary's sister, who is also wearing a picture pendant of who is most likely their mother).

Copyright page fully states: “ Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by M. Doolady, In the Clerk’s office of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. …John J. Reed, Printer and Stereotyper, 43 Centre Street, N.Y.”. Title page is dated with date of first printing: 1867.