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Mason, Bobbie Ann; Black Oak Books; Okeanos Press : Original Broadside - Excerpt "From Feather Crowns"

Black Oak Books, Berkeley, CA, 1993

Original broadside printed on beige paper in green and black ink. Features a full-page green and white illustration of a floral bouquet over which the text is printed. Signed by the author in black ink: "Bobbie Ann Mason." Dated "Oct 14, 1993" in black ink by the author. 6 3/4" x 11 1/2." Broadside is virtually pristine and intact. A Fine copy. A beautiful, fine-press broadside featuring an excerpt from Bobbie Ann Mason's novel, Feather Crowns (1993). Feather Crowns is about a woman named Christianna Wheeler, a Kentucky woman who gives birth to five quintuplets. The novel is based on the real-life story of Elizabeth Lyon (1857-1941), the mother of the first recorded quintuplets in the United States who were born alive and lived more than twenty-four hours. On April 29, 1896 in Mayfield, Kentucky, Elizabeth gave birth to five identical baby boys whom she named Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul. The presiding doctor was Dr. S. J. Mathews. Sadly, none of the babies lived past May 14, 1896. Many commentators consider the cause of death to have been starvation because bottle-feeding was looked down upon at the time and a wet nurse had been hired. However, the story of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul did not end there. The quintuplets were preserved and mummified by a Paducah funeral home and placed in glass cases. For the next two years, they were exhibited at county fairs by Dr. Mathews. The cases were then stored in Mathews's office but were stolen. While en route to Louisville, the babies were found and returned to Mayfield where they were brought back to the Lyons after Mathews passed away. Elizabeth had wanted her sons buried with her, but fearing body snatchers, she wrote a letter to President Woodrow Wilson asking if they could be sold to the government for their safety as well as scientific research. Elizabeth's letter was eventually forwarded to the Army Medical Museum. After negotiations, the quintuplets were given to the museum in 1916. Bobbie Ann Mason (b. 1940) is an American author and literary critic from Kentucky. She has written a number of novels, essays, and short stories. Her memoir, Clear Springs, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2000. Copyright information printed at the bottom: "Copyright 1993 by Bobbie Ann Mason. From Feather Crowns, published by HarperCollins. This is a gift from Black Oak Books, Berkeley, on the occasion of a reading by the author. Designed and printed at Okeanos Press, 1993." Black Oak Books was a bookstore in Berkeley, California. It originally opened in 1983 and carried a wide variety of new and used books, some of which were rare and first editions. Sadly, the store closed in 2016 due to the rising cost of rent in the area. Okeanos Press was also based in Berkeley. Excerpt from the broadside: "Christie couldn't explain the queer lightsomeness inside her. When she went out through the newly planted fields with the children and saw the newborn calves frisking after their mothers, she felt a surge of air lifting her. ... It wasn't like the frightfulness of having those babies inside her. ... It wasn't physical. It was an outlook, something directing her eyes so that they didn't miss anything. She searched out the coming irises and the blackberry lilies and the ubiquitous wild blackberries and gooseberries. She found little brown jugs, jack-in-the-pulpits, lady's slippers, buttercups, five different kinds of violets--some of them yellow and some white, not violet at all. She looked at everything in a new way.". Poster. Book Condition: Collectible-Fine. Binding: No Binding

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