Description
Originally published in 1864 by King & Baird of Philadelphia, this edition of Libby Life by Lieut.-Colonel F.F. Cavada was published the following year by J.B. Lippincott & Co. This copy is inscribed on the front free endpaper by fellow prisoner of war Alfred R. Calhoun.
Octavo, 221pp. Publisher’s brown cloth, title stamped on spine. Light toning to spine, spine ends rubbed, corners bumped. Cloth worn through in a few places along front cover edges. Light shelf wear to covers with a few small white spots. Slight lean to text block. Text block cracked in a few places, but binding is stable. Toning to endpapers and text pages, pencil notation on front flyleaf and a couple pencil marks to text pages. Newspaper obituary for Federico Fernandez Cavada attached to front pastedown endpaper. Frontispiece missing, but all other plates are present.
Inscription on front free endpaper: “Presented to / Rupel Smith / By / Alf R. Calhoun / Perryville / Garrard County / Kentucky / June 22nd 1865.”
(Dornbusch I: 274A) A very good example of this firsthand account of life in a Confederate prisoner of war camp.
Born in Kentucky, Alfred Rochefort Calhoun (1843-1912) served in the First Kentucky Cavalry during the Civil War. Captured in Tennessee, Calhoun was sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia and later paroled. Calhoun lost a leg during the war and was mustered out with the rank of major. After the war, Calhoun had a varied career. He worked as a literary and drama critic for the Philadelphia Press, did survey work out West for the Union Pacific Railroad, and worked as a special artist for HarperÂ’s Weekly. He later worked as a journalist for several New York newspapers; collaborated on the play, The Color Guard: A Military Drama in Five Acts; and wrote several books, including Kohala of Hawaii: A Story of the Sandwich Islands Revolution, Maud Morton: A Novel, and How to Get on in the World; or, A Ladder to Practical Success. Calhoun died at his home in Brooklyn in 1912.
