The Common Law. First Edition, Boston, 1881

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr.

Publication Date: 1881

About this Item

Boston: Little, Brown, And Company, 1881. First Edition of The Common Law Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. [1841-1935]. The Common Law. Boston: Little, Brown, And Company, 1881. [i]-xvi, 422 pp. Octavo (8-1/4" x 5-1/4"). Original law calf, rebacked retaining existing spine with raised bands and lettering piece, blind frames to boards, hinges mended. A few light scuffs to boards, a few small chips to board edges, faint creases to spine, corners bumped and moderately worn, early owner signature (Samuel L. Morris, Jr., 1/13/1908) to front and rear pastedowns. Moderate toning to interior, offsetting, light soiling and a few tiny chips to edges of endleaves. $2,500. * First edition, the presumed first issue, with the one-line printer statement reading "The University Press, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A." at foot of the title page, verso, and foot of p. 422. As Friedman points out, "The Common Law was easily the most distinguished book on law by an American published between 1850 and 1900." In contrast to earlier Anglo-American jurists, and the reigning positivist ethos of the nineteenth century, Holmes proposed that the common law was not a science founded on abstract principles but a body of practices that responded to particular situations. This functionalist interpretation led to his radical idea that law was not discovered, but invented. This theme is announced at the beginning of Lecture I: "The life of the law has not been logic: it has been experience" (1). Friedman, A History of American Law 544. Grolier Club, One Hundred Influential American Books 84.

Seller Inventory # 75308

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Common Law. First Edition, Boston, 1881
• Publication Date: 1881
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Boston: Little, Brown, And Company, 1881.
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Seller catalogs:
  • Antiquarian & Scholarly