The Congo and Other Poems

Author: Vachel Lindsay (Nicholas Vachel Lindsay)
A 1914 Macmillan first edition of The Congo and Other Poems by Vachel Lindsay, featuring an intimate handwritten poem inscribed and signed by the author in January 1915. Beyond its literary significance as Lindsay’s most famous and debated work, this copy preserves a deeply personal moment intended for a named recipient. The inscription reads like a private parable, touching on loss, search, and reconciliation. With age-consistent binding and clean pages, this volume stands as both a historic artifact and a uniquely human literary relic.
In 1915, the American poet Vachel Lindsay inscribed this copy of The Congo and Other Poems with a short, handwritten poem — not for fame, not for publication, but as a personal gesture.
Published in 1914 by Macmillan,
The Congo is Lindsay’s most famous and controversial work: a poem meant to be heard, performed aloud, rhythmic and unsettling. It made Lindsay briefly famous — and permanently debated.
This copy goes further.
The inscription, dated January 16, 1915, is addressed to a named recipient and signed in full by Lindsay. It reads like a parable: family, loss, searching, and peace restored. It is intimate, human, and unmistakably private — the kind of moment that almost never survives intact inside a book.
The binding bears its century with honesty. The pages remain clean. The voice, unmistakable.
This is not just a first edition.
It is a moment — captured in ink.