Description
First edition of From Tannery to the White House: The Life of Ulysses S. Grant by William M. Thayer, signed by First Lady Julia D. Grant and her eldest son, Frederick D. Grant.
Octavo, 480pp. Brown cloth boards, illustrated and stamped in gilt. Title and illustrations in gilt on spine. Floral endpapers, both in delicate condition. Includes frontispiece with tissue guard. Housed in custom brown cloth chemise, with title on spine over red morocco label, lined with felt.
Inscribed on the first free endpaper: “Julia D. Grant / Jany 24th 86.” Additional signature on second free endpaper: “Frederick Dent Grant 1887.” An exceptionally scarce signed book from First Lady Julia D. Grant.
Julia Dent Grant (1826-1902) was the wife of President Ulysses S. Grant and First Lady of the United States from 1869-1877. After the death of her husband in 1885, Grant began to work on her own memoirs, the first written by a first lady. She found the writing a “panacea for loneliness, a tonic for old age,” and soon looked for a publisher. Many believe she had unrealistic expectations due to the success of her husband’s memoirs and she never secured a publisher. The memoirs were eventually published in 1975, seven decades after her death. She was the mother of Frederick Dent Grant (1850-1912), a soldier and United States minister to Austria-Hungary, who also signed this book.
