INSCRIBED BY WATERGATE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR ARCHIBALD COX

(COX, Archibald) GORMLEY, Ken. Conscience of a Nation. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, (1997). Thick octavo, original half black cloth, original dust jacket. $225.

First edition, second printing, published the same year as the first printing, of this biography of one of the Watergate special prosecutors, boldly inscribed: "For Bill McCormick with best wishes Archibald Cox."

"Watergate made Cox a national hero when Richard Nixon fired him as special prosecutor in what became notorious as the Saturday Night Massacre. Yet despite Cox's acclaim for stubborn fairness, Duquesne University law professor Gormley writes, '[H]e would never… receive the top prizes of his profession. He would remain a footnote in American history.' That Cox is worth more than a footnote is the substance of this admiring biography, which brings to life an essentially private man who personified integrity in public life. Although Watergate dominates the book, Cox was busy before and after it. A public servant—often while on leave from Harvard Law School—he became a major player as John Kennedy's solicitor general with such landmark cases as the one-person one-vote decision… Avoiding arid legalese, Gormley effectively evokes Cox and his contemporaries" (Publishers Weekly). With a preface by Nixon's attorney general, Elliot Richardson, who resigned rather than fire Cox. Autograph annotation in an unknown hand next to inscription reading, "Nov. 23, '97. CCMA Meeting," indicating that this work was inscribed in the year of publication.

Book with pinpoint foxing to edges of textblock and mild toning to edges, dust jacket with only minor rubbing and soiling. A near-fine inscribed copy.