(signed card poem & envelope by Carman; cover of Low Tide on Grand Pre –by Bliss Carman & Richard Hovey, Lamson Wolffe, 3rd. ed. 1895; Songs from Vagabondia, Elkin Mathews, 2nd. ed. 1895–scarce 750 copies, endpapers poem by Carman; autograph poem from Canadian Singers and Their Songs, McClelland & Stewart, 1919; Later Poems McClelland & Stewart, 1921, frontispiece photo of Carman as long-haired, popular aesthete of the day)
Fredericton-born (William) Bliss Carman (1861-1929) was a cousin of Charles G.D. Roberts and was a popular poet, essayist, and poetry lecturer in his day. He was well-known for his musical, mystical poetry and his collaborations with American Richard Hovey on the Songs of Vagabondia series (1894-1912). His best-known poem “Low Tide on Grand Pre” is also the title of his first book (1893). During the 1950s and ’60s in schools, his poems were more common in textbooks than any other Canadian poet and his name was much better known than it is today.