About this Item
A perfectly serviceable set of hardcover copies, complete in two volumes; nothing fancy, but complete and sturdy. Measuring 8 5/8" tall by 5" wide, bound in publisher's brown cloth, blind-stamped illustrations (of holly leaves) to front and rear panels, gilt lettering to spines. Moderate rubbing to and some scuffing of tips, spine heads and feet. Forward cock to both spines. Mild soiling to endpapers, light foxing to texts, some tide-lining here and there, including at endpapers, stitches showing at gutters here and there, some pulling of signatures but still holding firm. Splitting of cloth to rear bottom joint of Volume II, and to bottom two inches of Volume I rear panel. From BAL entry #19389, appears to be an apparent later printing of the First Edition, as the Preface by Stowe was not present in either the first issue of the American First Edition or in its English equivalent. Neither is there damage to p. 209 of Volume II, battering here and there, the phrase "the Dicksons are fewer" appears on p. 370, nine lines up, but without mention of the Ruskins, etc. Volume I, p. 88 does not feature the stereotypic bleeding of the "d" in "dictatorial" to the "r" in "rather" on lines 3 and 2, respectively, from the top. Like the A binding of the true First Edition, the blind-stamped holly leaves here are bordered interior by 20 embossed dots. Set up and stereotyped by Hobart & Roberts of Boston, published by Phillips, Sampson and Company, with "1856" appearing at copyright page. Harriet Beecher Stowe's second antislavery novel wasn't just a sequel to Uncle Tom's Cabin, published four years prior, but rather, was written in direct response to criticisms of it by both white Southern slavers and those in support of it, and by black Abolitionists and sympathetic white liberals. Here, Stowe explores the issue of slavery from an enslaved African-American perspective told in dialogue between not-yet-woke "Nina Gordon," the defacto mistress of a slave plantation in North Carolina, and "Dred," a black revolutionary and Abolitionist. Thus ensue trenchant discussions of race and racism, the institution of chattel slavery, and the seeming impending violence needed to end it. Dred is not an acquiescent Christian martyr "Uncle Tom" figure, nor the inherently falsely conscious Stepen Fetchit character he is tar-brushed with. Whether an apocryphal story or not, a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln is that, when he met finally met Harriet Beecher Stowe, he said, "So you're the little woman that started this great war!" Volume I: [3], iv [1], vi [1], 8-329 [6 pp. of publisher's ads]; Volume II: [5] pp. Frontis matter, 6-370 pp., including three appendixes: Nat Turner's Confessions (Appendix I), Death of Hark (Appendix II), Church Action on Slavery (Appendix III). The beginning pages to the second two appendixes are misrendered in the Table of Contents.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets. Seller Inventory # 353855
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