THAYER, WILLIAM S. 1864-1932.


Archive of manuscripts and printed material, comprising: 1. Autograph Manuscript Signed ("W.S. Thayer"), being a book of original poetry, including "Osler" and other titles, 76 pp recto and verso, 12mo (130 x 94 mm), n.p., 1914-1924, in ink, with numerous emendations and corrections. Bound in vellum, with hand-painted design on cover in antique style, and titled Date Book. Soiling to covers.2. Typescript poem entitled "Osler," 1 p, 4to, Baltimore, May 1919. Chipping to margins, a few stains.3. Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. William Osler Birthday issue, July, 1919. 4to. Printed wrappers. Slight chipping to spine, minor browning.4. THAYER, WILLIAM S., ET AL. Sir William Osler, Bart. Brief Tributes to His Personality, Influence and Public Service. Baltimor: Johns Hopkins Press, 1920. Contemporary green cloth, gilt titles. Reprinted from "Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital," July, 1919. CHARLES G. ROLAND'S COPY (book label). 5. THAYER, WILLIAM S. Osler and Other Papers. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1931. Publisher's cloth, printed dust jacket. INSCRIBEED "To W.T.L. [Warfield T. Longcope] from W.S.T." on Thayer's calling card, pasted to free front endpaper, and additionally signed by Longcope.6. ---. America - 1917 and Other Verse Baltimore: The Norman, Remington Co., 1926. LIMITED EDITION, with only 200 copies printed. Includes the poem "Osler". INSCRIBED "To E.F.B. [Edward Farquhar Buzzard] from W.S.T." on free front endpaper, with Buzzard's bookplate on front pastedown. Manuscript excerpt from Rennell Rodd's poem "An Attic Night" on half title. 7. RODD, RENNELL. 1858-1941. "An Attic Night." In: The Violet Crown. London: Edward Arnold, 1913. Quarter white paper and pale blue boards. Boards sunned, light foxing. Second edition, with the first appearance of this poem. 8. REID, ELIZABETH GITTINGS. B.1863. The Life and Convictions of William Sydney Thayer. New York: Oxford University Press, 1936. Publisher's blue cloth. First edition. 9. Photogravure portrait of William Thayer by Doris Ulmann. [Baltimore 1922], image size 208 x 157 mm, with facsimile autograph below. A few minor smudges to margins.10. Photogravure portrait of Warfield T. Longcope by Doris [Ulmann] Jaeger. [New York 1919], 198 x 155 mm image size, with facsimile autograph below.11. Engraved portrait of William Osler by Frederick C. Smillie [New York 1919], image approximately 78 mm in height, sheet size 236 x 149 mm. Slight browning at margins.This archive traces the creation and sequential publications of an iconic poem celebrating William Osler written by his protégé and successor William Sydney Thayer . The manuscript poem "Osler," written in May, 1919, appeared in a number of publications, most of them in item 6 in this lot. Thayer carried this vellum-bound pocket notebook to Europe during World War I and elsewhere. Almost every handwritten poem in the notebook includes a notation of when and where it was written. Thayer became Osler's resident a year after graduation from Harvard Medical School, and in 1898 he was appointed associate professor of medicine and visiting physician in charge of the outpatient department at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was one of Osler's next door neighbors, the so-called "latch-keyers."