Into the Light: A Poem

TAYLOR, Edward Robeson.

Into the Light: A Poem.

FIRST EDITION, the first separate printing of the poem. San Francisco: D. P. Elder and Morgan Shepard, 1902.

8vo. [32] pp. Original publisher's pictorial wrappers, the front cover with a striking Art Nouveau design — a stylized red flowering plant within a gilt, green, and black stained-glass-style border. Red and black Art Nouveau frontispiece and title page; title and text enclosed throughout in red ornamental borders. Near fine: the wrappers bright, with strong gilt and crisp ornament. Wrappered books of this period are inherently fragile and seldom survive well. An uncommon and attractive volume.

A handsome example of early San Francisco fine printing from the firm of D. P. Elder and Morgan Shepard. The author, Edward Robeson Taylor (1838–1923), was a physician and lawyer who served as Dean of Hastings College of the Law and, from 1907, as the 28th Mayor of San Francisco — sworn in at sixty-eight, the oldest in the city's history, a record he still holds — while publishing many volumes of verse. He also founded the Book Club of California.

SKU TO-2026-094