A Boy's Town, Described for "Harper's Young People", (with Autograph Letter Signed Tipped In )

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1890. Autograph Letter Signed, a single page of green stationery folded, writing one side, tipped in at front endpage and dated May 21, 1894- "40 West 54th St. My dear Ropes, I have sent you a copy of Literature(?) where you will find an ? ? story of the Civil War in a poem(?) of mine. I went to the book in order to compare the fighting in it with the fighting in the innumerable stories of the Spanish war; but I remained to wonder of the monumental work which you have performed. To a mind like mine ( I hardly dare call it a mind ) in the presence of such profoundness as yours, it is inconceivable that you should have mastered all that detail and the grasp with which you hold it and present it is so clearly, so profoundly, simply ?? one. You can justly find that you've written the history of our battles in the great war in such a way that it could not be written again. We are going to Kittery Point for the summer and I hope to see you. W.D. Howells" . John Codman Ropes (1836-1899) was an American military historian, author, and lawyer. Howell's letters are SCARCE in the marketplace, especially ones with such a great literary Association. The letter is Fine. The book is Very Good Plus in the original decorative cloth binding, bookplate front pastedown of "The Howells Edition/Indiana University", indicating that this copy served as part of the reference collection for the project that prepared the Indiana University "Selected Works of William Dean Howells". Cloth rubbed at spine tips, frontis illustration and page 221 are both loose. BAL 9654. First Edition, First State. . Autograph Letter Signed. First Edition. Decorative Cloth. Very Good Plus. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. Association Copy.