Golf. Poetical Putts. [Mock-up of Unpublished Book]. [With:] [Archive of Golf Poetry and related materials] de Bonnelle, Frank J - 1905

[Boston, 1905. 4to and smaller. Overall very good. Spine perished. 4to and smaller. First American Golf Poet Prepares Material for Publication. Frank J. Bonnelle (1850-1921), a longtime editor at the Boston Herald, contributed a large number of occasional poems to that newspaper and was the first contributor of poems to "The Golfer," a periodical published in Boston at the turn of the 20th century (though not recorded on OCLC or in Donovan/Murdoch, the U.S.G.A. Library holds a run of "The Golfer," 1895-1903) and the first American periodical devoted exclusively to the sport. The Massachusetts Historical Society holds a small collection of Bonnelle family correspondence that includes some material involving Frank J. Bonnelle.

1. Golf: Poetical Putts. Mock-up for an unpublished book. Portrait frontispiece, printed title page, 31 of Bonnelle's long poems, each with a golfing theme, some illustrated, clipped from a periodical and mounted to the rectos of album leaves, 20 more golfing poems (clips, typescripts, or small printed broadsides), laid in; some of the poems have manuscript corrections, additions, or deletions. 4to album, spine coevering perished, still sound. Titles of the poems include "On the Links," "Her Caddie," "The Unsuccessful Golfer," "Hazards," "The Golfer Who Loved and Lost," "Fore!," "A Ghost on the Green," "Belinda of the Links," "St. Nick and the Golfer," "Caddie Macree of Lynn," "A Sonnet to Golf," "Poetical Putts," and "Ye Ancient Boston Golfer," among others.

With additional material from the papers of the first regularly published golfing poet in the United States:

2. Golf in Verse: A Series of Poetical Putts. [Boston, n.d., ca. 1910]. Original manuscript (carbon typescript; a typed and revised version of "Golf: Poetical Putts"?). 4to. (35) pp. [rectos only], title page, table of contents page, and 30 of Bonnelle's long poems, each with a golfing theme; laid in are small printed broadsides (proofs?) of 15 of the poems included in the collection, a manuscript list of titles for inclusion, and two Bonnelle golfing poems clipped from a periodical. Very good. Original brown printed wrappers (spine worn).
3. Manuscript statement by Bonnelle (unsigned) concerning his work in the printing trade and newspaper business from apprenticeship at 15 in Iowa to his desk at the Boston Herald (8vo, six pages), on Boston Herald stationery.
4. Manuscript, signed, of Bonnelle's golfing poem "A Reformed Golfer" (4to, one page, five stanzas of four verses each), edges worn.
5. Manuscript, signed, of of Bonnelle's poem "An Ornithological Outing" (4to, five pages, 12 stanzas of four verses each, small illustrations for each stanza, all in purple ink).
6. Letter of recommendation for Bonnelle from L.W. Myers, editor and proprietor of the Wapello, Iowa, Republican, 12 April 1871 (8vo, two pages), given as Bonnelle left the Midwest to pursue his career in the East.
7, Notebook (4to, 192 pp.), posthumous compilation of his non-golfing poems mounted on both sides of sheets of paper, mostly arranged by topic, e.g., Christmas, Thanksgiving, other holidays, journalism, etc., and including clips from periodicals, typescripts, several signed manuscripts, small printed broadsides, etc., comprising hundred of examples. Not in OCLC or Donovan & Murdoch