Author: Smith, Elbert H.
Title: Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak; or Black Hawk, and Scenes in the West. A National Poem in Six Cantos
Publication Information: New York: Published by the Author 1849
Call #: PS 2859 .S65 1849
Book Size: 19.5 cm (H); 12.5 cm (L); 2.5 cm (spine)
Cover: green embossed cover in set; geometric designs in corners; gold geometric in center of front cover (back cover the same, without the gold); lozenge net grain cover (look at the details on covers); cover creating a blind stamped framework with geometrical and curling design; spine has a floral design with Black Hawk and Scenes of the West on it that is different from the design on the covers (and the lack of coordination between the spine and the covers is not unusual, but it is significant)
Inside Book Covers: plain pages inside front and back covers; a signature inside the front cover that looks like "Wm. M Buchanan"
Paper Edges: unadorned
Illustrations: portrait of Black Hawk opposite the title page, right hand on hip, left hand holding a gun (and note alongside "painted by William McM. Buchanan"); there's a portrait of General Zachary Taylor inside the text (also colored in)
Comments:
- Dedication: "To all the lovers of the arts of Poesy and the Belles Lettres , and to all the friends and patrons of American enterprise and home industry, hoping that the same may prove useful and amusing to them, is this work most respectfully dedicated, By their humble servant, The Author."
Pedagogical Uses/Notes:
- 19th-Century American Text Production
- Representations of Native Americans
- Development of American Historical Narrative
- Nationalism
- Poetry
