Smith E Vale Euphemia Vale Blake (1 results)

Hard Cover. Condition: Very Good. First Edition. Printed by Damrell and Moore, Boston. Hard cover, 8vo (measuring 6 x 9 ¼ inches), rebound in modern black leather binding with decorative endpapers, titles in gilt to spine, 414 pp., plus errata. Condition: Very Good. The rebinding is firm and clean. There are two small closed tears, repaired, to the foot of title page, which also has a large area of offset. Otherwise the text is minimally age-toned, and clean. A bit of foxing affects a tissue guard. The two engraved illustrations are present. This is a well-researched, very readable history which successfully places the local Essex County, Massachusetts scene into a wider context of understanding. The Author, Euphemia Vale Smith (1817-1904) was a British-American immigrant who arrived in New York in 1823, married a dental surgeon and relocated toNewburyport. She came from a well-educated family and had a successful career as an author and journalist, contributing to periodicals such as the North American Review, acting editor of the Newburyport Herald, and a number of other Boston newspapers of the time. The lure of the California Gold Rush apparently led her husband, Dr. Blake, the dentist, to seek his fortunes elsewhere, and after seven years of abandonment she was granted a divorce. Mrs. Smith, as she was known professionally, went on to write a number of non-fiction titles, and was able to support herself and her two children. (She lived not a handful of streets away from this bookseller.). Book.