“Old Grimes” - A Manuscript
Autograph Manuscript, unsigned, fair copy, of his poem “Old Grimes”.
N.p. [Providence, RI?]: n.d.[before 1868].
Price: $2,000.00
About the item
3 pages on a single bifolium, in ink. 4to. “Old Grimes” - A Manuscript. Fine. With light pencilled comment at top “A.G. Greene of Providence”. John L. Harrison, “The Author of Old Grimes”, in THE SCRAPBOOK, Vol. 3, pp. 605-607.
Item #247627
Written anonymously by a 20-year-old Brown University student, A.G. Greene (1802-1868), and first published in a student newspaper in 1823, “Old Grimes” quickly became part of the popular folklore of the nation, and, when set to music, one of the country’s most familiar songs. Greene’s poem was not published in book form until 1867, with illustrations by Augustus Hoppins. By then, Greene had acknowledged his authorship of the entire poem, with the exception of the first stanza -- which was known to him as a familiar refrain or nursery rhyme, and which he used as a lead-in to the rest of the poem. The first stanza reads:
“Old Grimes is dead; that good old man; / We never shall see more / He used to wear a long black coat / All buttoned down before.”
A rare piece of American popular culture.