Landmark Books in All Fields
ItemID: #117872
Cost: $9,200.00

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe

“TRUST IN THE LORD”: FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE OF UNCLE TOM’S CABIN, HANDSOMELY BOUND, WITH AUTOGRAPH NOTE SIGNED BY HARRIET BEECHER STOWE

STOWE, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin; Or, Life Among the Lowly. Boston: John P. Jewett; Cleveland: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, 1852. Two volumes. Octavo, mid 20th-century full crushed red morocco gilt, raised bands, watered silk endpapers, top edges gilt. $9200.

First edition, first issue, of Stowe’s classic and vastly influential novel, with title vignettes and six wood-engravings, handsomely bound by Macdonald. With an autograph note signed by Stowe tipped into Volume I reading “Trust in the Lord and do good faith & works. Harriet Beecher Stowe, Nov 3d, 1893.”

"In the emotion-charged atmosphere of mid-19th century America Uncle Tom's Cabin exploded like a bombshell. To those engaged in fighting slavery it appeared as an indictment of all the evils inherent in the system they opposed; to the pro-slavery forces it was a slanderous attack on 'the Southern way of life'… the social impact of [the novel] on the United States was greater than that of any book before or since" (PMM 332). "Within a decade after its publication Uncle Tom's Cabin had become the most popular novel ever written by an American… there is substantial evidence that the book precipitated the American Civil War" (Downs, Books That Changed America, 108). It first appeared in weekly chapters in the periodical National Era, starting on June 5, 1851. First issue in book form, with all first issue points. Later editions attribute the wood-engravings to Boston architect Hammatt Billings. Without final blank of Volume II. BAL 19343. Grolier English 100, 91. Grolier American 100, 61. Sabin 92457. Stowe’s autograph note features a variant of an admonition she was known to copy out and sign.

A fine copy, desirable with autograph material from Stowe.

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