REMARKABLE ESCAPES FROM PERIL. (Spine title: "Remarkable Escapes.")

i-vi, 7-158 pages. Hardcover: H 16.25cm x L 10.5cm. Original blue cloth rubbed with some staining; board corners bumped and worn; slight cloth loss at frayed spine ends; spine's gilt stamping has flaking/rubbing losses but lettering is still legible. Toning and several small stains to edges; varied foxing throughout as well as a few scattered stains; a few pencil marks amongst text; past owner's three-line inscription "Thos. H. Jaco | Longtown | Miss" utilizing regular pencil writing and color pencil decoration on front flyleaf. Tearing to surface paper along front hinge causing some slightly pliability but binding otherwise remains fairly firm. A good+ copy. With b/w frontispiece illustration plus three b/w plates (between 58-59, 84-85, and 120-121) all on unpaged leaves, Editor's Preface, and an Introduction. Contents succinctly summarized within the Introduction as "intended to adduce some instances of remarkable escapes from peril, which may tend to give a more vivid and distinct appreciation of out constant dependence on the providence of God." No author or publishing date specified but the Library of Congress online catalog attributes authorship to Methodist theologian Thomas Osmond Summers (1812-1882) and with their copy dated 1856. OCLC also cites an 1859 Nashville imprint. However, this copy's binding seems more contemporary to the 1870s-1880s which also seems more apropos for the employment span of J.D. Barbee [James D. Barbee, 1832-1906] as a publisher's agent. OCLC cites several books with the same title published in London by the Religious Tract Society but it is unclear whether this particular book is derivative of those as Summers "borrowed" heavily from other works in his prolific publishing career. Editor of the weekly newspaper Nashville Christian Advocate, Thomas O. Summers edited/authored innumerable books on behalf of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Ronald R. Allen's TENNESSEE IMPRINTS 1791-1875 cites Summers as the author of only seven books but the total is far higher - quite likely in excess of fifty with most being anonymous moral-theological tracts such as REMARKABLE ESCAPES FROM PERIL and perhaps the most historically notable being "The Confederate States Almanac for the Year of Our Lord 1862." Description copyright David Hallinan, Bookseller. {Antiq_Shelf #2}.…