Thursday, January 26, 2012

Hiawatha's Photographing

1857, from the Jupiter Books edition of The Illustrated Lewis Carroll 1978
Lewis Carroll
Original and purchase price unknown
Hardcover in good shape except for missing jacket and a few food stains
This poem a B-

While definitely one of Carroll's minor works, in both length and quality, I like it for two of the same reasons I like Humphry Clinker.  It shows how family members can react to the same situation in very different ways, and it captures a particular moment in social history.  Portrait photography was very new in the late 1850s, yet Hiawatha's subjects have each worked out a particular pose and style.  As you can guess from the title, this poem follows the meter of "The Song of Hiawatha."

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