Description
Presentation copy by Charles W. Fairbanks, then United States Senator from Indiana and future Vice President of the United States, to the First Lady of Indiana, Mrs. Winfield T. Durbin. This is the first illustrated edition of Elizabeth and Her German Garden by Elizabeth von Arnim.
Octavo, [10], 225pp, [1]. Publisher’s decorated cloth, title stamped in gilt along the spine. Complete with twelve photogravure illustrations from photographs, including frontispiece, with tissue guards and descriptive letterpress. Top edge gilt, remaining edges uncut. Internally clean. Both hinges showing wear, but stable. Ownership inscription below the inscription by Fairbanks.
This copy is inscribed on the front free endpaper: “Christmas Greetings to Mrs. Winfield T. Durbin / from her friend / Charles W. Fairbanks / 1900.”
A great piece of Indiana political history.
This copy is inscribed to the First Lady of Indiana, Bertha McCullough Durbin, the wife of Governor Winfield T. Durbin, who served as Governor of Indiana from 1901-1905.
Senator Charles W. Fairbanks (1852-1918) was selected as Vice President for the 1904 election, a nod to conservative factions of the Republican Party. Roosevelt and Fairbanks were not close, with Fairbanks actively working against his Square Deal agenda. With the popularity of Roosevelt going into the 1908 election, he was free to choose his successor and named William H. Taft, bypassing his Vice President. Fairbanks retired from public life, except for an unsuccessful campaign in 1916 as Charles Evan Hughes vice-presidential nominee.
