Americana]. [Binding]. Gleanings from the Portfolio of the "Young 'Un." Illust. by Hitchcock 1849.

Inscribed?]. BURNHAM, George Pickering-- or Mathew Franklin Whittier?

[Americana]. [Binding]. Gleanings from the Portfolio of the "Young 'Un." Illustrated by Hitchcock. Boston: R.B. Fitts, 1849. 3rd edition.
Wright fiction, inscribed by author.

Gleanings from the Portfolio of the "Young'Un." Illustrated by Hitchcock. Boston: R.B. Fitts, 1849. Third edition. Inscription on front blank may or may not be by the author--“G. C. Hill Esq.  /  With regards of /  “Young ‘Un."   [Wright I, 462]

Green cloth with gilt decorated covers, soiled and faded in spots but still rather striking.  See images.

A note one the authorship of this unusual text, which cleverly cloaks social criticism in irony and humor.  A Google search landed on an enthusiastic, somewhat evangelical scholar named Stephen Sakellarios  ("I am a lay researcher specializing in reincarnation studies, as well as the life and work of 19th-century author Mathew Franklin Whittier.")  He makes a compelling case that the true author is Mathew Franklin Whittier, the famous poet's younger brother.--not George P. Burnham, the co-copyright holder.   Was Whittier cheated? Is Burnham a pseudonym used by Whittier?  Read Sakellarios papers on M. F. Whittier… and his views on reincarnation!