GRENVILLE MELLEN - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED 01/26/1828 - HFSID 169483

GRENVILLE MELLEN
The lawyer and poet signs this letter regarding a piece of land he is trying to sell
Autograph letter signed: "Grenville Mellen" in brown ink. 1 page, 8x9½. North Yarmouth, January 26, 1828, addressed to John Watkinson, with a bill for commission written on top portion for $59.44½, in part: "Dear Sir, Presuming that you would wish to hear something from me in relation to your land, I now write you. I have taken much pain, to sell for you- and have written again and again to men in Oxford who I thought would with to purchase or would know who would be like to purchase-... your old dear friend". Grenville Mellen (1799-1841) was an American lawyer and poet. He studied at Harvard College and was class poet for his 1818 graduation class. He attended Harvard Law School for two years and then clerked in his father's law office. Mellen did not become known as a writer until he was about twenty-five years old. He was then one of the contributors to the Cambridge United States Literary Gazette. In the early part of 1827, he published a satire entitled Our Chronicle of Twenty-six, and two years afterward, "Glad Tales and Sad Tales", a collection of prose sketches, which had previously been printed in the periodicals. The Martyr's Triumph, Buried Valley, and other Poems, appeared in 1834. He served for a short period as editor of the Portland Advertiser. In 1830, he delivered the Harvard Phi Beta Kappa poem, "The Age of Print." He co-edited the Monthly Miscellany and continued his writing in New York and Maine. Toned. Corners rounded. Creases from mailing folds. Left margin has torn edge removed from book. Small stain on top half of letter. Small hole in center of page. Otherwise, fine condition.