Description
Salesman’s Dummy copy of Abraham Lincoln: A History, by his personal secretaries, John G. Nicolay and John Hay, published in 1890.
Octavo, xxiii, [385]-482pp, [70 illustrations], [16pp subscribers list]. Full leather, title stamped in gilt on front cover. Brown endpapers. Solid text block, light wear to edges of covers, thin stain along back cover with no impact to text block. Includes 70 full page illustrated plates and 2 facsimile documents. Three reviews pasted to front endpapers. Subscribers list at rear. Does not include a sample of the bindings. (Monaghan, 1071)
Subscribers include the Governor of New Hampshire, Hiram A. Tuttle, Brigadier General Joab N. Patterson, and others from Concord, New Hampshire and Worchester, MA.
A scarce work, with no other known copies previously sold on the public market.
Nicolay and Hay began work on this epic history of Abraham Lincoln in 1874. They contacted Robert Todd Lincoln, the only surviving son of President Lincoln, for his permission to use Lincoln’s papers to write the book. By 1885 the work was shared with Robert Todd Lincoln and others, who offered some critiques. The book was sold door to door in 1890 at a price of $50.00 for the full set. It sold 7,000 copies, but was not a commercial success. In 1902, Nicolay wrote an abridged one-volume version, which sold well.
