Three early editions of the composer's "The Last Hope." Two editions share plate numbers, but are slightly different in their layout and have different price indications.

"The Last Hope: Religious Meditation." Upright folio. New York: William Hall & Son. 12 pp. Lithograph. [PN] 3515. Priced at 7.5¢. Disbound from larger volume. Wear to left edge, else fine. 9.75 x 13.25 inches (24.8 x 33.6 cm.).

"The Last Hope: Religious Meditation." Upright folio. New York: William Hall & Son. 12 pp. Lithograph. [PN] 3515. Priced at 12.5¢. Disbound from larger volume. Wear to left edge, cover page separated, else fine. 9.75 x 13.25 inches (24.8 x 33.6 cm.).

"The Celebrated Last Hope." Upright folio. Chicago & New York: McKinley Music Co. 10 pp. Lithograph. [PN] 640-8. In fine condition. 10.25 x 13.75 inches (26 x 34.9 cm.).

Gottschalk wrote in his diary that a publisher, Hall of New York, "'wished to possess my works written before those he had just published, and having faith in my talent as a composer, he addressed the publisher of the melancholy piece I have already spoken of, for the purpose of buying it. "Willingly," was the reply. "It does not sell at all; pay me the fifty dollars it cost me, and it is yours." This little piece was Last Hope, of which more than thirty-five thousand copies have been published in America, and which still produces yearly to its publisher, after a run of more than twelve years, twenty times the amount that it cost him.' This revised version of The Last Hope was published in 1855. The piece followed Gottschalk around in the same way that Rachmaninov’s C sharp minor Prelude dogged its composer half a century later. 'Invariably,’ wrote Gottschalk, ‘at every concert a small, scribbled, note requests me to play Last Hope. The other day I received one composed as follows: “Would Mr. G. kindly please 36 young girls by playing The Last Hope, which they all play”.’" (Hyperion Records)