Description
First edition of The Bread-Winners, published anonymously by John Hay. Octavo, 319pp. Rebound in three quarter green morocco, title in gilt, decorative compartments on spine, raised bands. Marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. Bookplate of Cleveland industrialist Henry G. Dalton on front free endpaper. Contains “The End” on page 319, with no priority established by the publisher. (BAL 7762) This short novel was written out of anger at the multiple labor strikes of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad in 1877.
Comments: John Hay would serve as the private secretary to President Lincoln until 1865. Along with John Nicolay, Hay would author a 10-Volume biography of President Lincoln called Abraham Lincoln: A History. During the McKinley Administration, Hay returned to government as the United States ambassador to the United Kingdom, and later the twelfth secretary of state.
