Ampharita: An American Idyll by the Countess di Brazza (Cora Slocomb).

Cora Ann Contessa di BRAZZA-Savorgnan (nee Slocomb, 1862-1944).

Ampharita: An American Idyll by the Countess di Brazza (Cora Slocomb). New York: [printed by the University Press, Camb., Mass. for the] Peace Bureau, 1897. Octavo (7 5/8 x 5 1/4in; 193 x 133mm). Pp. [i-iv; i-iv]-v-xvii-[xviii]; 19-244 + 8pp. advertisements at the end + small format slip at the front noting that this copy had been ‘Especially bound for the Author’. Frontispiece, illustrations (some full-page), all after the author. Original cream cloth, upper cover and spine blocked in blue/purple. Provenance: Herbert Brown (author’s presentation inscription ‘Mr. Herbert Brown / wishing him a gladsome / Xmas 1899/ C.A. di Brazza).

‘Second Edition”, but the first under this revised title and the first to include the ‘preface’: a fine copy ‘especially bound for the author' and inscribed by her.

The first edition 'An American Idyll' was published in 1896. It is an ‘ethnographic romance set in Southern Arizona about the relationship between a white gentleman-scholar ('the Scientist') who visits the region to learn about its flora and fauna, including the local Indians, and the young maiden, Ampharita, … Of interest mainly for the careful ethnographic research that went into the writing (forty pages of "explanatory notes" and "glossary of Indian and Mexican Terms" follow the story) and the many detailed drawings.’ (Robert Eldridge). The author - an interesting figure - is probably now best known as an early peace campaigner.