Tuckernuck.

Hartford, C.T.: Plimpton Print, 1882. 8vo, gray wrappers printed in blue and gold, bound with blue cord. [4], 28 pp., text bordered in single rule printed in blue.

First and only edition. A semi-fictional sketch set on the island of Tuckernuck just off Nantucket, featuring members of the Coffin family and other Tuckernuckers, and culminating in an 1882 Coffin family reunion. Evidently drawn from the author’s experience, the story—a loosely connected series of vignettes evoking the inhabitants and society of Tuckernuck (and Nantucket more generally)—centers on the heroine Silvy (in her own words), “a po’r ole lady of color,” who had lived with the Richard Coffin family for some forty years. Presumably inspired by or written for a reunion similar to that featured in the story, this work is dedicated “To Clan Coffin and the Sojourners at Nantucket and Tuckernuck.” A gilt medallion on the front-wrapper bears the legend “Tristram Coffin The First of the Race That Settled in America” and features a colonial-era figure standing on a pedestal bearing the date 1649.

Tristram Coffin (ca. 1609–1681) immigrated to Massachusetts from England. In 1659 he led a group of investors who purchased Nantucket from Thomas Mayhew for a sum of thirty pounds and two beaver hats. Emma V. Hallett (1833–1908) was a descendent of Tristam Coffin on her mother’s side. She also authored Natalie; Or, A Gem Among the Sea-Weeds (1859).

Scarce. OCLC records just six copies.

A scarce piece of Nantucketiana.

CONDITION: Good, light wear and soiling to wrappers, slight loss to cord holes on wrappers and tape repairs to same on inside of wrappers, clean interior, an appealing copy.