Description
First edition of Memorial of Henry Ward Beecher, published in 1887.
Octavo, 192pp. Brown cloth, embossed illustrations on covers, title stamped in gilt. Frontispiece portrait with tissue cover. Solid text block, free of markings or notations. An attractive and scarce copy.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) was an American social reformer, abolitionist and influential clergyman. His sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, achieved worldwide acclaim for her abolitionist novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. During Beecher’s lifetime his sermons focused on God’s love, a notable departure from his Calvinist upbringing. He was a religious guide to multiple Republican presidents, including Abraham Lincoln, who said that no one in history had “so productive a mind.” A recent work on his life by Debby Applegate, titled “The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher,” won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 2007.
