Description
From the library of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, The Life of General Lafayette by former president John Quincy Adams.
Sixteenmo, iv, [5]-255pp, [3]. Publisher’s red cloth, title stamped in gilt on spine, embossed illustrations on covers. Yellow endpapers, solid text block. Includes numerous woodcut illustrations and frontispiece portrait. The first edition of this work appeared in 1847 (O’Neill 214). Includes Franklin Roosevelt Library label on front endpaper and signed by President Roosevelt on free endpaper, above ownership stamp.
President Franklin Roosevelt was an avid collector of miniature books, a hobby which began in the 1890s and continued throughout his presidency. A complete list of his collection does not exist, since the books were located at the White House, Hyde Park and Campobello Island. After his death in 1945, his collection was divided up between members of the family and the National Park Service at Hyde Park. The first part of the collection was sold at auction in 1951 by Hammer Galleries of New York. At the estate sale for Eleanor Roosevelt in 1964, additional miniature books were sold at auction. (The Microbibliophile, Volume XXXVII, Number 1, Issue 211, January 2018) (FDR’s Little Books, Weber).
