The Grave of Uncle True. Poetry by Jefferson Henri Nones U.S.A. Respectfully Inscribed to the Readers of the Lamplighter by H.S. Colman.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

John Marsh

Philadelphia

1854

Lithographic upper cover depicting a woman laying a wreath at the grave of Uncle True. Three pages of sheet music.

Strophic form musical arrangement, composed by H.S. Colman with lyrics by the journalist and poet Jefferson Henri Nones, based on the 19th century American novel The Lamplighter, by Maria Susanna Cummins. A young orphaned and abused girl - Gertrude Flint - rescued by kindly lamplighter Trueman Flint from her abusive guardian, evolves into a capable, resourceful and defiant woman. Although second in sales after Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Lamplighter did not retain its popularity, perhaps the novel was seen as too empowering to woman at the time. Nathaniel Hawthorne famously quipped about the numerous editions of the Lamplighter: “America is now wholly given over to a damned mob of scribbling women.” Jefferson Henri Nones, son of Captain Henry B. Nones was born in Philadelphia into an aristocratic Sephardic family; he served in the Mexican-American War.