Bidspirit auction | AGUILAR, GRACE. *  Shema Yisrael

AGUILAR, GRACE. *  Shema Yisrael - The Spirit of Judaism. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. Philadelphia, 1842. Edited by Isaac Leeser.  *  The Women of Israel. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION . Two volumes. With frontispiece portrait of author. New York. 1851. *  The Jewish Faith: Its Spiritual Consolation, Moral Guidance, and Immortal Hope. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. London, 1846. *  The Jewish Faith: Its Spiritual Consolation, Moral Guidance, and Immortal Hope. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. Philadelphia, 1864. Preface by Isaac Leeser. *  The Vale of Cedars. New York, 1871. Together, six volumes. Some wear. Variously bound. 8vo. Grace Aguilar (1816-1847) did not live long, but her literary impact was far-reaching. As a young lady of unusual talents, her writings found an early champion in Isaac Leeser, who published her in early issues of his Occident. Meanwhile, she found acclaim in her native England, where her words could be read frequently in the Jewish Chronicle. Her short pieces and novels won her a broad audience with the general public. Among other themes, Aguilar wrote on Jewish women — a quite new literary topic. The quality and depth of her writing was a particular inspiration to young women. After her passing, an admirer submitted an Impromptu Elegiac Acrostic (on her name) to the Jewish Chronicle, two lines of which read: “About her bright but mild religion shone/ Casting a genial warmth through apathetic frost” (JC, Oct. 22, 1847, p. 283.) For the time and place this was high praise indeed. The Occident sounded a note of more American emotion: Aguilar’s death “will send a thrill of pain through the hearts of nearly all our readers” (Occ. 5:47, November 1847, p. 47).