Description
From the library of President James A. Garfield, the first edition of A Search for Winter Sunbeams, inscribed by the author, Samuel S. Cox.
Octavo, xiv, 442pp. Publisher’s decorative blue cloth, title in gilt on front cover and spine. Gilt illustration of camel on front, with gilt embellishments. No additional printings listed. Spine professionally re-backed, original cloth laid on top. Text block resown. Light rubbing to corners of text block, notable wear to endpapers. Faint toning and foxing throughout, with occasional thumb marks along edges. From the library of James A. Garfield, with his personal bookplate affixed to the front free endpaper. Complete with 42 illustrations, including a frontispiece of Monaco. Previous bindery sticker affixed to rear endpaper.
Inscribed on the front endpaper: “Gen Garfield – With new year’s greetings from the author, Samuel S. Cox / 1 Jan 1870 / N.Y.”
A unique piece.
Before his short time as president, James A. Garfield’s political career overlapped with Cox’s as a fellow U.S. Representative for Ohio from 1863-1880. Although the two were on opposing political sides, they attended numerous dinners together over the years. In one of Garfield’s diaries, he wrote “Some of the best men socially in Congress are political adversaries.” This book is one of a few inscribed by Cox to be deaccessioned from Garfield’s Presidential Library, which houses nearly 3,000 volumes. The author of this book, Samuel Sullivan Cox (1824-1889) served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Ohio (1857-1865, 1869-1873) and New York (1873-1885, 1886-1889).
