Landmark Books in All Fields
ItemID: #116314
Cost: $1,400.00

R. E. Lee: A Biography

Douglas Southall Freeman

FREEMAN’S BIOGRAPHY OF LEE, INSCRIBED BY HIM TO FAMED ACTOR DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS, JR.

FREEMAN, Douglas Southall. R.E. Lee: A Biography. New York and London: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1949-1951. Four volumes. Octavo, original red cloth, original slipcase. $1400.

Mixed later editions of Freeman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, a memorable presentation/association set warmly inscribed by Freeman in Volume I: “Autographed for Douglas Fairbanks by Douglas Southall Freeman,” with his initialed “D.F” on each side of his inscription.

Freeman, the son of a former Confederate soldier who served in the Army of Northern Virginia, "was invited in 1915 to write a biography of Lee for Scribner's… He identified with him strongly, seeing Lee's life through Lee's own eyes. His biographical method produced an ample, empathetic, and ruminative treatment, abundantly researched and documented, a triumph of scholarly tribute" (DAB). First published in 1934. With 1951 editions of Vols. I-III, 1949 edition of Vol. IV. Containing full-page photographic illustrations, facsimiles, battle plans and maps (including large folding map in Volume I). Without scarce dust jackets. With slipcase. Dornbusch II:2930. Haynes 6441. With armorial bookplates in each volume of Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., famed "actor, producer, administrator, bon vivant and Anglo-American ambassador," whose many films include Morning Glory (1933) with Katharine Hepburn and Prisoner of Zenda (1937). After a brief marriage to Joan Crawford, during WWII Fairbanks enlisted in the Navy, becoming "the first American officer to command a British flotilla of raiding craft during a commando operation." Using his "prestige and administrative skills as a volunteer for the United Nations… his contributions won him many honors, including Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire" (New York Times).

Interiors fine, slight rubbing to spines of gilt-lettered cloth; expert repairs to seams of slipcase. A near-fine inscribed set with a notable provenance.

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