HOLMES, Oliver Wendell — AUTOGRAPH QUOTATION SIGNED (AQS) and AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (ALS)
Boston. On a 6-7/8" x 9" piece of paper the author has written the following seven-line stanza from one of his best known poems "The Chambered Nautilus": Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! Below this he has SIGNED "Oliver Wendell Holmes/Boston, March 10th 1888." On the verso of the paper (though not on the exact reverse side of the poem, so that one could cut the paper and have two separate autographed pieces), is a brief AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED by Holmes to a Miss Wright: "It gives one pleasure to comply with your slight request. Please turn this leaf. Very truly yours OW Holmes. Boston, March 10th 1888.". Normal light creases. A Fine example from this noted author and doctor. The nautilus is a sea creature that lives inside a spiral shell. As it grows, it makes new, larger chambers of its shell in which to live, closing off the old chambers and gradually forming a spiral. Holmes uses the nautilus as a metaphor for the human soul, emphasizing the idea that humans expand their horizons until they achieve the spiritual freedom of heaven or the afterlife. One of the most enduring nature poems of the nineteenth century, "The Chambered Nautilus" was first published in the periodical THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY and then in book form in Holmes's 1858 classic THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST TABLE.
