Description
The first edition of The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe by her son, Charles Edward Stowe. This copy is inscribed by Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Thick octavo, xii, 530pp, [6pp]. Dark blue cloth, title stamped in gilt on spine, decorative gilt embellishments on front cover. No additional printings noted. Blue-gray endpapers, solid text block. Top edge gilt. This copy is complete with frontispiece portrait and 15 illustrated plates, all with tissue covers. Notable foxing to frontispiece port and title page, otherwise a clean example.
Signed on the verso of the frontispiece portrait, shortly after the book was published: “Trust in the Lord and Do good. Written by your true Friend / Harriet Beecher Stowe / Jany 2, 1890.”
This work by Rev. Charles Edward Stowe was sold by subscription beginning in 1889, for $3.50 per book. A second printing appeared shortly after, dated 1890 on the title page. This work is considered far superior to other biographies which appeared during the same era, due to cooperation of Mrs. Stowe and the access granted to her letters and journals.
