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First Edition (SD, 1836). Going back and forth on whether to sell this book. Stood up to put it back in the bookshelf, took my seat again. Very, very rare first edition. Very special book. Very difficult to find, even when Washington Irving was looking for it. When I bought the book there was (still is) a xerox copy inside of a letter he had written. It reads: 'My dear (?), I return you my most grateful thanks for your kindness in furnishing me with a copy of Wheaton's Elements of International Law. It is a work of great importance to me, but which I had sought for in vain in every quarter. Very respectfully, your (?), Washington Irving, March 11, (1842?).' Be clear this is a xeroxed copy of the letter. The book however is the original with the original covers, without any repairs, and solidly bound. That combination of factors makes it singularly unique. There is a 24-page (unnumbered) publisher's catalogue at the end of the book. It's bound with the rest of the book. You can see the covers. They have only some light handling soiling, and some darkish coloring near the middle edge of the rear cover, also a light vertical crease.The spine's green is lighter than that of the front and rear. The label on the spine, taking into consideration age, looks not bad at all. It has couple of small scuffs where the green shows through, a few other letters here and there are rubbed away. The borders of the label are surprisingly without tear or loss. The cover edges are in quite nice shape, just a few small spots of light rubbing. All four corners have a spot of rub-through, each one quite small. The one at the rear bottom corner is actually just off the bottom edge of the rear cover. The top page edge has some uniform tanning. The middle edge has some lighter toning, the bottom edge not much at all. The book is square and the spine is straight. As noted, the binding is quite solid. There are no cracks or spaces between either inside cover and its end paper. In fact the only cracks or spaces (partial) I found were between page 368 and 369, and between two pages in the publisher's catalogue, but even there most of the bindings along the juncture were intact and both sets of facing pages were solidly bound from top to bottom. Talking about original condition and lack of repair, the pages in this book remain, in the main, uncut. More specifically, they are cut (with the exception of the two blank front end papers) through to page 40 and thereafter only a very few pages are cut. So for example page 297 can be read and page 300 can be read, in between 298 and 299 can only be read from the side since their top edge is uncut. Then page 301 and 304 can be read with 302 and 303 uncut at their top edge. That's the pattern throughout. Two things to bring to your attention: I would describe the foxing in the book as fairly light, occasionally moderate, present mostly off the top and middle page edges. The title page has more than is typical and I've provided a photo. The second thing is a light water stain off the bottom corner of all the pages. Because it is light I don't think it jumps out at you. The first 16 pages, including the title page, have a smaller water stain as well just off their bottom corner. As noted the two front end papers are uncut, looks like they started to and there's a small tear off the top edge of the second one. I pretty much went through all the pages. There's a tiny loss off the top edge of two consecutive pages, very far from the print. There's also a tiny loss off the top corner of one page (it got pulled over to the facing page). I think that might be it for tears or losses. There is very little by way of creasing. I saw maybe a half-dozen or so light top corner creases. I didn't have to unfold any corners. There are no markings in the book. No attachments of any kind. And no one has written their name or anything else anywhere. My letter limit approaches. Check out the Wikipedia page on the book and on the author. Seller Inventory # 004536
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