SAMUEL FRANCIS SMITH - AUTOGRAPH POEM SIGNED 1/1886 - HFSID 28141
Price: $1,800.00
SAMUEL F. SMITH
Samuel F. Smith signs and pens the poem "America".
Autograph Poem signed: "S.F. Smith", 4¼x3¼card. Titled by
him: "'America'." In full: "My country - 'tis of
thee,/Sweet land of liberty,/of thee I sing;/Land where my fathers died,/Land of
the pilgrims' pride,-/From every mountain side/Let freedom ring." Smith
has noted the year he wrote this song at the lower left: "1832"
and when he wrote this copy: "Jan. 1886". After a visit to
Germany in 1831, 23-year-old theological student Samuel Francis Smith
(1808-1895), impressed that German children started their school day by singing
a hymn, wrote a patriotic hymn using a simple German melody. Coincidentally,
the melody was the same as that of the British national anthem, "God Save the
King". Smith jotted down the complete hymn on a piece of scrap paper within
half an hour, and the result, "America", was first sung at a children's
celebration in Boston's Park Street Church on July 4, 1832. George Gershwin
used Smith's phrase "Of Thee I Sing" as the title of his 1932 Pulitzer
Prize-winning musical, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. quoted the
entire first stanza as he concluded his "I have a dream" speech in front of the
Lincoln Memorial in 1963. Slightly shaded edges. Tip of upper right corner a
little worn. 1x¼-inch light stain at upper edge. Overall, fine
condition.
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