[Louise Chandler Moulton, American author.] Autograph Letter Signed ('Louise C. Moulton') to 'Mr. Boyd', including holograph poem 'Has Spring Come Back?', which she has written that day for a party celebrating the engagement of Longfellow's daughter.

A nice item, in which, writing to a friend in London, Moulton describes, and encloses a holograph copy of, the poem she has written that very day for the following day's New Year's Eve party to celebrate the engagement of Longfellow's youngest daughter Anne Allegra to Joseph Gilbert Thorp Jr. (1852-1931). 4pp, 12mo. Bifolium. Aged, worn and creased, with damage resulting in loss of a couple of words of text, due to tearing of the letter away from mount. The letter covers three pages, the last written lengthwise, and is forty-six lines long. The poem, titled 'Has Spring Come Back?', is fifteen lines long, covering the last page, and is dated (written on the same day as the letter) at the end 'S. C. M. | Dec. 31. 1884.' It corresponds to the version published in 1886 in the Christian Union. She begins the letter by expressing sadness 'over the tidings in your letter about our dear friends, the Rogers - & also I felt a thorough comprehension of just what it had been to you to be away from your work two years - & even now not to have quite your old strength with which to return to it'. She is herself 'not overstrong', and has been 'in such a whirl of engagements since I came to Boston that I am nearly distracted'. She is sailing for Italy in February, and will be 'glad of the rest & quiet of the sea voyage': 'Meantime I take a journey Southward - but my address will be | 35 East 39th. Street | New York City'. She reports that on that very evening she is 'going to a New Year's Eve party which celebrates the engagement of Prof. Longfellow's (the poet's) youngest daughter to the brother of Mrs. [...]. Those of the guests who are given to verse making were asked for Autographs - & I'll copy for you, on the last page of this letter, my contribution to the affair. It finds its text in the extreme warmth of this day - really a spring day.' She concludes by explaining that she has not yet decided whether to sail directly to Italy, or to come by way of London, but that she hopes to be there 'sometime in the summer, & surely to see you'.