Book excerpt: One of the most important American poetry anthologies of the nineteenth century, including the works of nearly every major and minor poet of the day, selected by Edgar Allan Poe's future literary executor, and rarely encountered in the correct first printing. Poets included are Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, Holmes, Bryant, Emerson, Jones Very, William Gilmore Simms, Christopher P. Cranch, Richard Henry Dana, and an impressive selection of female poets now mostly forgotten: Sigourney, Gould, Brooks, Mrs. Seba Smith, Hall, Embury, Ellett, Dinnies, Welby, Hooper, Davidson.