Description
Signed by American businessmen Andrew Carnegie and Samuel Noble, the first edition of The Old South and The New by William Darrah Kelley.
Octavo, vii, 162pp. Maroon cloth, title in gilt on spine, printed in black on cover. Advertisements on endpapers. No additional printings listed. Solid text block, light wear to corners, splitting to front hinge, a near fine example. Signed on a slip tipped-in at title-page. Stated “With the compliments of / Andrew Carnegie / Samuel Noble.”
Samuel Noble (1834-1888) was the founder and manager of the settlement of Anniston in Alabama. Noble frequently appears throughout the book, since the majority of Kelley’s observations of the South come from the town of Anniston, Alabama. Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was a leader of the American steel industry, and one of the wealthiest Americans in history. Carnegie was a philanthropist later in life, donating roughly 90% of his fortune, which equates to roughly 5.5 billion dollars in today’s values.
