EVERETT’S ORATIONS AND SPEECHES

EVERETT, Edward. Orations and Speeches on Various Occasions. Boston: Little, Brown, 1860. Two volumes. Thick octavo, contemporary three-quarter tan calf, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, green and burgundy morocco spine labels, marbled boards, endpapers and edges. $400.

Sixth edition, with frontispiece portrait and much work not included in the first edition, handsomely bound.

Scholar and politician, Everett served as Congressman, Ambassador, Secretary of State, Governor, and College President at one time or another, and was one of the most popular orators of his day. “Everett moved back and forth between political and scholarly life with a facility uncommon in American society. His impressive array of public and private offices testifies to the importance then attached to the role of the orator. It is his speeches rather than his administrative or legislative actions that constitute Everett's true body of work. These orations have seemed grandiloquent and long-winded to later generations, but they reflect well the sensibility of their time” (ANB). As cultural documents of nineteenth-century America, their importance is substantial. First published in 1836. Bookplates. Library inkstamp on title pages.

Scattered faint foxing, handsome contemporary calf rubbed. A nice copy.