Little brown Bessie.

First novel-form edition: Complicated romance set in a Massachusetts village, with plot threads involving a lost baby, a mysterious artist, a celebrated tenor plus a jealous soprano, and the Cinderella figure of the title, who rescues herself by running away to Boston ? among other excitements! The author originally published the piece in 1874 as a four-act drama; in the preface to this reworked novel version, she claims that the titular plotline was based on her own experiences growing up along "the old Housatonic" in Sheffield, MA. The tale is => illustrated with 16 engravings by influential cartoonist Frank Beard (once dubbed "the father of the American cartoon"), some full-page and some in-text. This first edition is intriguingly uncommon in libraries: A search of WorldCat finds => only two U.S. institutions reporting hard-copy holdings. The short-lived publisher was known not for books but for issuance of => a ladies' fashion magazine offering both style tips and patterns! Provenance: Front fly-leaf with 19th-century pencilled inscription of Guilford D. Eggleston. 4to (19.2 cm,7.55"). [2], 174 pp.; illus. Not in Wright, American Fiction. Bound as above; slightly cocked, spine and outer edges darkened, extremities rubbed. A handful of scattered small spots of foxing, pages otherwise clean.