Description
Third edition of The Naval War of 1812 by Theodore Roosevelt, printed in 1883.
Octavo, xxxviii, 541pp, [2pp ads]. Publisher’s green cloth, title in gilt on spine. Illustration of a fully rigged sailing vessel on cover. Cloth binding variant B, with yellow-green cloth. Rubbing to cloth at the spine, some loss and fraying at the spine. Front hinge starting, text block stable. Free of any marks or notations, even toning to leaves. (Cole & Vail, A3c) A scarce copy of the third edition of Roosevelt’s first important work.
Roosevelt began writing this book during his senior year at Harvard. He later noted that the first chapters he wrote at Harvard “…were so dry that they would have made a dictionary seem light reading by comparison.” Over the next two years he refined this narrative and published the book at the age of 23. This first edition was issued in three types of cloth: dark blue, olive green and reddish brown. Subsequent editions were printed using the same plates, but with “second edition, third edition, etc.” added to the title page.
