•  Publisher's quarter cloth with illustrated paper sides. Inside front hinge weak and paper split due to nature of binding. Else, sound. (3595)

Parson Weems (1756–1825) is best known for this highly readable biography of Washington, the one which contains the famous story of the cherry-tree. Weems was a great storyteller whose technique was to use anecdotes as a window into the moral character of his subjects. He has since fallen into disfavor, especially among academic historians who dismiss his work as mere hagiography and question the accuracy of some of the incidents. Perhaps this work's most enduring legacy is how it reflects the nearly universal esteem and awe in which Washington was held during the 19th century.

Illustrator Robert Quackenbush, whose signature appears on the colophon page, created the book's seven full-page two-color plates (blue and white), 12 half-page woodcuts (mostly black and white, with at least one in red and white), and the two-page blue and white color spread of Washington crossing the Delaware. The monthly newsletter (included with this offering) states that these evoke “a combination of the formal style of the early Byzantine period of Constantine and the woodcuts of Dürer.”

Henry Steele Commager, author of numerous works of American intellectual, political, and cultural history, wrote the introduction. Richard Ellis designed the book choosing a 12-point Modern 8A font with three points leading-space between the lines. Encircling each chapter title is a wreath of 13 stars, with the initials “G W” printed above.

Binding:  Full American white cotton printed with a “colonial-style” pattern of eagles and stars in blue. Gilt-stamped leather spine label.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 475.   Binding as above. Slipcase covered in blue paper; title label on spine. Fine, in a fine slipcase.  (22081)

•  Recent paper wrappers. Reverse of the title-page and one other page with institutional stamps; a few pages with pencilled marginalia, otherwise clean.

•  NSTC 2H32642.   Publisher's brown cloth, spine chipped, corners worn. Internally, only a few stray spots and mild foxing. Pressure-stamped “The Blasberg Collection” on the title-page and front free endpaper.  (10188)

Binding: Publisher’s pebbled leather, half red over brown, with gilt-stamped title on covers and ornately gilt spine. All edges gilt.

•  Binding as above. Joints and edges somewhat rubbed with a little loss on corners and chipping at foot of spine. Light soiling and foxing to endpapers, and light foxing to frontispiece and following three leaves; interior otherwise clean. Pencilled ownership inscriptions on recto of front free endpaper and front flyleaf. Quite handsome and in strikingly good condition.

•  Garrison B15. Publisher’s printed paper–covered boards, darkened, most notably over spine. Front free endpaper with pencilled owner’s name. Pages slightly age-toned.

•  Garrison A45.1.a, binding A, jacket A. Publisher’s blue cloth, front cover and spine stamped in gold, in original printed paper dustwrapper with price; binding clean and unworn save for minor wear to spine extremities, dustjacket with cream portions slightly darkened and small edge nicks to front panel and spine.

The volume is illustrated with20 plates, including one printed in pink and a few in full color. Much on household management is specifically directed to women.

•  Not in Bitting; not in Cagle. Publisher’s cloth, front cover and spine stamped in black and gilt; gilt dimmed, spine and edges rubbed. Front hinge (inside) cracked. Front pastedown with early inked ownership inscription, back free endpaper with early pencilled gift inscription. Pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean; a few corners in the recipe section dog-eared.

•  NSTC 2W17788.   Original wrappers, front wrapper chipped at edges, back wrapper chipped at inner edge and with paper remnants affixed at top. Leaves loose (wrappers included). Long tear in fore-margin of title-leaf and small chips in inner margins of title- and final leaves. Some short marginal tears. Small chips to lower outer margins. Lengthwise fold mark. (8931)

•  Publisher's quarter cloth with printed and illustrated sides. Endpapers printed. Covers soiled, worn over edges, corners bumped. Hinges (inside) reinforced, covers a bit wobbly. Complete. Good overall. (6090)

With an advertisement on the back for "Wilkes's Spirit of the Times. The American Gentleman's Newspaper. A Chronicle of the Turf, Field Sports, the Army and the Stage."

•  Miles 485. Original wrappers. Removed from a nonce volume.

•  Cahoon, 56. Boards, printed label. Fine, without printed dust jacket, as issued.

•  Folded sheet, showing a few small holes along folds, with spotting to back panel and edges of front panel. (15613)

•  Folded, never bound. Uncut, mostly unopened.  (456)

For other ABOLITION items,  click here.

Click the image to the left
for an enlargement.

The printed Career is followed in this little volume by an extended manuscript section containing neatly written excerpts from Wooley’s Science of the Bible or an Analysis of the Hebrew Mythology.

•  Contemporary half calf over textured cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands; front cover detached, leather scuffed. All page edges marbled. Upper portion of front free endpaper torn away; two front fly-leaves partially excised. Back free endpaper with pencilled owner’s name. Printed portion very slightly age-toned, with faint creasing to first section.

Click the interior image for an enlargement.

Binding: Contemporary black morocco, covers with embossed strapwork, spine with embossed arabesque designs, front cover with gilt-stamped title. All edges gilt.

•  Not in Wolf, From Gothic Windows to Peacocks. Binding as above, lightly rubbed through to green (not unattractively) along edges and joints. Foxing throughout. Newsprint copy of a Goethe poem laid in. An elegant presentation of “elegant prose”!