Orpheus C. Kerr Papers. First, Second and Third Series

NEWELL, R[obert] H[enry]. The Orpheus C. Kerr Papers. First, Second and Third Series. Three vols. Orig. cloth. London: John Camden Hotten, 1866. Possibly the first collected English edition, although this three-volume set is not identified in BAL. The first American editions of the Kerr papers appeared in 1862, '63 and '65. See BAL 14961, 14962 and 14967. Writing under the name of "Orpheus C. Kerr," a play on the words "office seeker," Newell (1836-1901) took his place with "Petroleum V. Nasby," "Major Jack" Downing and "Bill" Arp in the tradition of 19th-century native-American newspaper humor. The Kerr papers still have interest as "a sort of comic commentary on the history of the Civil War." After retiring from journalism, Newell wrote a book called "The Cloven Foot," one of the many attempts to interpret and complete Charles Dickens' unfinished "Mystery of Edwin Drood" (1870). Newell "introduced a novel feature in transferring the setting of the story to American conditions, but his work appears to have passed without recognition in the voluminous Edwin Drood controversies."--DAB. A very good set.…