Autumn 2020 Catalogue

13 American Heroes & Leaders Autumn 2020 “By Far The Best Book Ever Written About America, And The Most Penetrating Book Ever Written About Democracy”: Rare Presentation Copy Inscribed By Tocqueville 10. TOCQUEVILLE, Alexis de. De laDemocratie enAmerique. Paris, 1835. Two volumes. Octavo, contemporary half red calf gilt, custom chemise and clamshell box. $62,000. Click for more info First edition, presentation copy in the original French, of the first two volumes of Tocqueville’s classic work, one of no more than 500 copies published, inscribed by Tocqueville in Volume I: “Donne par l’Auteur, 1836.” Accompanied by the two volumes of the second edition of Part II in a contemporary binding. “This is by far the best book ever written about America, and the most penetrating book ever written about democracy... In the view of de Tocqueville, the greatest danger that threatens democracy is its tendency toward the centralization and concentration of power” (Hazlitt, The Free Man’s Library , 163). Included here are also second editions of the two volumes of the second part (Paris: Librairie de Charles Gosselin, 1840), published in the same year as the first edition. With large folding map hand-finished in color at rear of Volume I. Map fine, scattered foxing to text, a bit of faint marginal dampstaining in Volume II, contemporary binding quite handsome. An extraordinary landmark, rare and important, and very rare inscribed by Tocqueville himself.