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A native of the miniscule western Massachusetts town of Gill, Josiah Dean Canning enjoyed a brief popularity during the nineteenth century as a poet of rural life and the virtues of the land. The "Peasant Bard" was born in Gill on August 31, 1816, the third of five sons of a minister and Williams College graduate, Josiah Weeks Canning and his wife Almira. Raised in home that prized education, Josiah grew into a minor prodigy, marking out his future in literary endeavors at an early age. At fifteen he built a printing press and published his own newspaper off and on for three years, ending the last issue in April 1834 with an original poem, "The Village Post's Finale."
Anxious to see a wider world, Canning ventured to Detroit in July 1834 to join his brother as a printer on the staff of the
Canning's return signaled a change in life in several regards, most notably his turn away from printing work to farming and the blossoming of his career as a poet. Canning began writing more seriously and publishing poetry that drew inspiration from nature and extolled the virtues of agrarian life. The first of his five books of poetry, the accurately-named
Tinged by the romantic writers he admired and frequently nostalgic, Canning's subject matter was firmly planted in place, extolling the spiritual virtues of farming in general, or the familiar trope of the vanishing Indian, but with an eye toward local specificity. Later in life, Canning became a supporter of local historical and antiquarian endeavors, as an officer of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, and was engaged in local politics in Gill.
This small collection consists of a printed copy of Josiah Canning's fourth book,
The collection is open for research.
Acquired from Eugene Povirk, Jan. 2018.
SCUA owns copies of four of Canning's five books, though all but the current are held in inaccessible storage.
The Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association has a small collection of
Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, Jan. 2018.