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THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS.

THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS. by Adams, Henry:

12 to 14 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: $10.00
Details
$50,000.00
( US$)
Seller: William Reese Company
Title
THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS.
Author
Adams, Henry:
Seller
William Reese Company (United States)
Description
Washington: [Printed for the Author],, 1907.. Inscribed Copy of the First, Privately Published Edition First edition and likely second printing of what by anyone's measure is one of the great American books, privately published for distribution among friends and family, with this copy bearing a presentation inscription, likely dating to the period following Adams' stroke in 1912, from Adams to his friend and Lafayette Square neighbor Edith Eustis. A strong case has been made that Adams initially had forty copies printed for distribution within a small circle of interested readers whose feedback he solicited and then had a supplementary printing of sixty copies made at a later date, possibly as late as 1913 or 1914, to satisfy the additional demand from family and friends. The distinction between the two printings is only possible by inscriptions or provenance: most copies of the first printing were distributed in the period following the book's initial publication in February 1907, while copies from the later printing would have been included among those presented by Adams in the later years, prior to his death in 1918. The Education has been described as "one of the great American autobiographies....a rewarding book and an American classic" (Reese). Written in the third person, it serves in part as an exploration of the ways in which Adams' traditional education had proved inadequate to the technical and social challenges facing the modern world. An heir to one of America's most distinguished political families, Henry Adams (1838–1918) was the grandson of U.S. President John Quincy Adams and the great-grandson of President John Adams. His father, Charles Francis Adams, was a diplomat and during the Civil War served as ambassador to the United Kingdom, with young Henry accompanying him as his private secretary. After the war, Henry went on to work as a journalist, Harvard professor, novelist, and historian. Among his published works were two novels, Democracy (1880) and Esther (1884); a nine-volume History of the United States during the administrations of Jefferson and Madison (1889–1891); and two very personal works, both written in his sixties, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres (1904) and The Education of Henry Adams (1907). According to Adams, the two works were meant to function as companion pieces, with Mont Saint Michel and Chartres serving as a study in "thirteenth-century unity," expressed ultimately in the figure of the Virgin, and The Education as a study in "twentieth-century multiplicity," epitomized by the invention of the Dynamo. In 1872, Adams married Boston socialite Marian "Clover" Hooper, who would later become an accomplished photographer. The couple eventually moved to Washington, D.C., where their Lafayette Square salon became a fashionable gathering place for politicians, authors, artists, scientists, and thinkers. In December 1885, Clover, who had long been given to bouts of depression, took her own life by ingesting a vial of potassium cyanide, a chemical used in developing photographs. Devastated by the loss of his wife, Henry in the decades after her death came increasingly to reject the masculine worlds of politics and business, finding comfort and satisfaction in the social company of women, most notably his nieces and such friends and neighbors as Edith Eustis, to whom the present volume is inscribed. This copy bears the author's presentation inscription in pencil on the front free endpaper: "Edith Eustis from Henry Adams." The recipient, Edith Livingston Morton Eustis (1874–1964), was Adams' friend and a Lafayette Square neighbor. Writing to author Edith Wharton's sister-in-law, Mary Cadwalader Jones, in 1910, Adams went so far as to describe Eustis as one "[o]f my six most intimate women-friends here." Eustis was the daughter of U.S. Vice President Levi P. Morton. Her husband, William Corcoran Eustis, was the grandson of Washington banker, philanthropist, and art collector William W. Corcoran, who had rented Henry and Clover Adams their first home in Washington, D.C., upon their arrival there in 1877. Adams' hand shows a visible tremor, suggesting that the inscription dates to sometime after the stroke he suffered on April 24, 1912. According to Adams' biographer Elizabeth Stevenson, "his handwriting more than any other trait showed the seriousness of his illness. It had been of a beautiful copperplate perfection. It was shaky and straggling now, the words formed with difficulty, but the thought, as tart and as indelibly Henry Adams as ever." The likely date of the inscription suggests that this copy was probably produced as part of the later, supplementary printing. Further supporting this conclusion is the fact that Eustis had been one of only three recipients of The Education's initial printing known to have returned her copy as Adams had initially requested, for in a letter dated February 28, 1908, Adams thanked her "for the return of the volume." Given her "honesty," as Adams put it, Eustis would almost certainly have been guaranteed to receive a copy from among the book's second printing. In his letter to Eustis, Adams went on to explain that "The two volumes [the Education and Mont Saint Michel and Chartres] have not been done in order to teach others, but to educate myself in the possibilities of literary form." Only after Adams' death in 1918 was The Education made publicly available in an edition published that year by Houghton Mifflin. "Within six months," notes Adams' biographer Ernest Samuels, "the book had sold 12,000 copies. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize posthumously. It has ever since retained its popularity as a classic of American literature." In 1998, The Education was ranked number one on the Modern Library's list of the 100 best non-fiction books published since 1900. A classic of Americana, here in the first, privately published edition, inscribed by the author. Large quarto. Original blue cloth, spine and leather labels gilt. Binding and extremities rubbed and a touch worn, leather labels worn and chipped, front hinge starting. Clean internally. Author's presentation inscription in pencil to Edith Eustis on front free endpaper. About very good. BAL 32. HOWES A52, "c." STREETER SALE 4220. REESE, NARRATIVES OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE 2. REESE SALE 336. Henry Adams to Mary Cadwalader Jones, February 3, 1910, in The Letters of Henry Adams, Volume 6, 1906-1918, ed. J.C. Levenson, Ernest Samuels, et al. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1988), p.307. Henry Adams to Edith Morton Eustis, February 28, 1908, ibid., p.122. Elizabeth Stevenson, Henry Adams: A Biography (New York: Macmillan Company, 1955), p.372. Ernest Samuels, Henry Adams (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1989), p.454.
1876-1886 - Four postally used envelopes promoting Women's Suffrage including one sent by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, addressed in her hand

1876-1886 - Four postally used envelopes promoting Women's Suffrage including one sent by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, addressed in her hand by Various Suffrage Organizations

7 to 14 days for delivery
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Details
$1,250.00
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Seller: Kurt A. Sanftleben
Title
1876-1886 - Four postally used envelopes promoting Women's Suffrage including one sent by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, addressed in her hand
Author
Various Suffrage Organizations
Seller
Kurt A. Sanftleben (United States)
Condition
Very good
Description
Tenafly, New Jersey; Boston, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Chicago, Illinois, 1886. Envelope or Cover. Very good. Three of these four postally used 'propaganda' envelopes promoting Women's Suffrage are addressed to Francis E. Abbott of Boston (a progressive theologian and the editor of The Index, a newsletter championing "free religious inquiry"); one is addressed to Dr. Hunt (likely Mary Olive Hunt, a noted physician and suffragist) of Manchester, New Hampshire. All are in nice shape This group includes two printing variations of envelopes that were specifically issued to call attention to the suffrage movement at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, where members of the National Woman Suffrage Association would storm the official Independence Day ceremony on July 4th and Susan B. Anthony would famously read the "Declaration of Rights of the Women of the United States," which was written by primarily by Mildred Joslyn Gage and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. The earlier of the two, which is franked with a green 3-cent Washington stamp (Scott #158) postmarked in Boston on 8 May [1876], identifies the officers of the Association in the upper left corner as President: Matilda Josely Gage of Fayetteville, N. Y. / First Vice Presidents: Lucretia Mott of Philadelphia, Pa. and Elizabeth Cady Stanton of Tenafly, N. J. / Treasurer: Ellen C. Sargent of Washington D. C. / Recording Secretary: Henrietta Payne Westbrook of New York / Chairman of the Executive Committee: Susan B. Anthony, Rochester, N.Y. Its text asks and answers four "Centennial Questions": "What is the difference between a Monarchy and a Republic? A Monarchy is a government of force; a Republic is a government of consent. In what way is consent given? By and through the ballot alone; that says yes or no. What part of this nation live in a Republic? The men; they have consented to the government. What part of the nation live under a Monarchy? The women; they have never consented to the government; they are ruled by force." The second cover, which was also intended to call attention to the suffrage movement at the Centennial Exposition, is franked with a green 3-cent Washington stamp (Scott #147) and was mailed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. It is addressed in her hand and was postmarked in Tenafly, N. J., Stanton's hometown. It identifies a second set of officers of the Association in the upper left corner as President: Elizabeth Cady Stanton of Tenafly, N. J. / First Vice President: Lucretia Mott of Philadelphia, Pa. / Chairman of the Executive Committee: Matilda Joslyn Gage of Fayetteville, N. Y. / Corresponding Secretary: Susan B. Anthony, Rochester, N. Y. Its text asks four different, additional "Centennial Questions": "Why should women, more than men, be governed without their consent? Why should women, more than men, be taxed without representation? Why should women, more than men, be tried without a jury of her peers? By what right do men declare themselves invested with power to legislate for women in all cases whatsoever?" The third cover in this group was issued by Citizens' Suffrage Association circa 1776. It is franked with a green 3-cent Washington stamp (Scott #158) and postmarked in Philadelphia. It displays a manifesto on its front panel that reads in part: "Women in the country are Citizens. Suffrage, in a republic is the citizen's right, else it is a privilege and can be taken away by the same power which confers it. Unless the ballot be a right of citizenship . . . That power which can deny suffrage, embodied, is a monarch; its denial tyranny. Taxation without representation was tyranny for men citizens in 1779. Is it less tyranny for women citizens in 1876? . . . Women of these United States! Are you satisfied with the way in which men represent you in temperance, education, government, and laws? If not, demand the ballot. The best interest of humanity require that men and women should co-operate in framing our laws. . .. Men have tried to represent women, and have signally failed. They have made laws for their protection which do not protect. . .. Does the present condition of society in our country justify a man's boasted superiority? Equality of citizenship - In rights, duties, responsibilities, and privileges - irrespective of sex or creed. . .. The subjection of women implies tyranny in men." The fourth cover in the group is not attributed to any specific organization. This cover is franked with a brown 2-cent Washington stamp (Scott #210) and postmarked in Chicago on 22 April 1886. It also bears a sound National Letter Association return label. Its front panel reads: "Woman's Patriotic Duty. Equity knows no difference of sex. Herbert Spencer. The equal interest of morality imperatively requires that the ballot shou be places in the hands of women. Bishop Simpson. While woman is admitted to the gallows, the jail and the tax list, we have not right to debar her from the ballot box. Wennell Phillips. No sectarianism in religion; no sectionalism in politics; no sex in citizenship. Frances E. Willard. What right have all you women to leave all this work of caring for the country to the men? James Freeman Clark." . The National Woman Suffrage Association was founded in 1869 by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony to secure women's right to vote through a federal constitutional amendment, and it also championed a broad spectrum of women's rights beyond the ballot, including equal pay, property rights, and divorce reform. Although the National Woman Suffrage Association was a racist organization, the Citizens' Suffrage Association, a local voting rights group active in Philadelphia, which was founded in 1876, was not. It fostered a multi-racial, collaborative platform for local and national activists and attempted to unite the usually opposing factions of the early civil rights and women's suffrage movements. Its official platform explicitly attempted to bring together both white female suffragists and prominent people of color to campaign for universal franchise. The cover posted in Chicago was not produced by any specific suffrage group. The 1 February 1886 issue of The Alpha, a Washington, DC, human rights newsletter, reported simply that these envelopes were being used by "Chicago suffrage women." Although all postally-used women's suffrage advertising envelopes are scarce, three in this group are especially so: the cover addressed and mailed by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the cover issued by the local Citizen's Suffrage Association in Philadelphia, and the Women's Patriotic Duty cover from Chicago. These covers seldom appear on the market, and when they do, they are usually offered for sale by postal history dealers or in philatelic auctions. At the time of listing, no similar items are for sale in the trade. The Rare Book Hub and ASBA show none having appeared at auction, although they occasionally appear at philatelic sales. OCLC shows none in institution holdings, although it is like some may be in personal papers collections. .
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Leonardo da Vinci

7 to 14 days for delivery
Standard Shipping: $10.00
Details
$60.00
( EU VAT US$0)
Seller: Elk River Books
Title
Leonardo da Vinci
Seller
Elk River Books (United States)
Condition
Very good
Description
New York: Reynal & Co., 1963. First US Edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Folio (36.6 cm), pp. 524. Tan cloth with gilt titling. Illustrated, textured jacket. Gorgeously illustrated with 1609 gravure engravings and 12 full-color plates. Printed in Italy. Damp staining to top back of jacket and rear free endpaper. Light bumping to spine ends. Price-clipped jacket with minor edge wear and small closed tears. A large, heavy book that may require extra postage.

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