"THE COLOSSUS OF INDEPENDENCE" (JEFFERSON): FIRST EDITION SET OF THE WORKS OF JOHN ADAMS, WITH BIOGRAPHY, HANDSOMELY BOUND IN CONTEMPORARY CALF

ADAMS, John. The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, with a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations, by his Grandson Charles Francis Adams. Boston: Little, Brown, 1850-56. Ten volumes. Octavo, modern full brown morocco gilt, raised bands, burgundy morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers, top edges gilt. $13,500.

First edition of the Works of John Adams, prepared by his grandson Charles Francis Adams, including Adams' esteemed biography of his grandfather, illustrated with portraits and facsimiles, a splendid ten-volume set handsomely bound in full calf-gilt.

Jefferson, who died the same day as John Adams, on July 4, 1826, proclaimed him "the colossus of independence." To Adams' biographer, David McCullough, "few Americans ever achieved so much of such value and consequence to their country in so little time" (American History), and to historian Gordon Wood, "more than any of the revolutionaries Adams represented the political and constitutional side of the American Enlightenment… No one read more and thought more about law and politics than John Adams" (Revolutionary Characters, 178). In 1850 John Adams' grandson, Charles Francis Adams, "took up seriously the publication of the Works of John Adams in ten volumes, and prepared a biography which, quite apart from its merits, still holds a place for its wide reading and broad treatment. A wholly unbiased weighing of character could not be expected, but as written by a grandson the work has unusual qualities" (ANB). This definitive set contains much of Adams' published works and public and private correspondence. Sabin 253. Publisher's receipt laid into Volume VI.

Offsetting from some illustrations, interiors otherwise fine. Very handsomely bound.