Description
The signed first edition of This Country of Ours by former president Benjamin Harrison, published in 1897.
Octavo, xxiv, 360pp. Dark blue cloth, title in gilt on spine, gilt signature on front cover. Yellow endpapers. No mention of a “Second Printing” on the title page. Solid text block. Light wear to front hinge, remains stable. Cloth and gilt are bright. An attractive, near fine example.
Signed on the front free endpaper: “Very Truly Yours, Benjamin Harrison.”
Published four years after his loss to former President Grover Cleveland, Harrison describes this autobiography as “…a modest attempt to give my readers a view of the machinery of our National Government in motion.” This work began in 1896 as a series of paid articles for the Ladies’ Home Journal, under the same title, “This Country of Ours.” The articles were revised and expanded for this publication, released in October of 1897.
A second printing followed the next month.
