N***** Melodies;: The Only Entire and Complete Work of Ethiopian Songs Extant.

New York: Nafis & Cornish, St. Louis, Mo., Nafis, Cornish and Co.,, [c.1849]. Seemingly first edition, predating editions published by Cornish, Lamport and Co., successors to Nafis & Cornish, around 1851. All early editions are uncommon, with perhaps two dozen copies on WorldCat, all of them in North America. This copy has the armorial bookplate of Edward Royall Tyler, son of the Rev. Edward Royall Taylor, abolitionist Connecticut Congregational minister whose anti-slavery lectures at the Eliot Street Chapel in Brattleboro in 1837 caused a near riot. "Cannon fired, and all manner of noises made to interrupt the services, no violence, however, offered. At five o'clock, another lecture, and increased noise of Cannon, etc., so much so as to frighten some ladies away from the house, nevertheless Edward proceeded undaunted..." (from Tyler's mother's journal). His son "Ned" Tyler was born in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1842, graduating from Yale in 1865. He spent some time working for the Treasury Department, before practising law for a while. He subsequently gained employment at the Patent Office, starting as the Fourth Assistant Examiner, rising eventually to the position of Principal Examiner. Duodecimo (105 x 71 mm) Slightly later tan morocco, title gilt to the spine, greyish-green and sepia flower-sprigged endpapers, yellow, green and red silk-page-marker. Frontispiece of "James Crow, Esq., de great grandfather ob de N***** singers", and title-page vignette. A little chafed at the extremities and minor spotting to the boards, light marginal toning, but overall a very good copy.