“WITH TENDER MEMORIES OF THE PAST, AND DEEPEST RESPECT FOR THE PRESENT”: FIRST EDITION, PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION COPY, OF THE STORY OF MY CHILDHOOD, WARMLY INSCRIBED BY CLARA BARTON TO THE EDITOR OF SCRIBNER’S MONTHLY AND CENTURY MAGAZINE, RICHARD WATSON GILDER

BARTON, Clara. The Story of My Childhood. New York: Baker & Taylor, 1907. 12mo, later half red morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, raised bands, top edge gilt.

First edition, presentation copy, of Clara Barton’s childhood memoir, very warmly inscribed to the editor of Scribner’s Monthly and Century Magazine: “To Richard Watson Gilder, With tender memories of the past, and deepest respect for the present from Clara Barton, September 24, 1908.”

Barton was widely known for her efforts in organizing nursing and hospital relief efforts during the Civil War, and in 1877 she was charged by the International Red Cross with organizing the American Red Cross. She wrote the American amendment to the Red Cross Constitution stipulating that the organization would assist not only during wartime but after floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters. "For the next 22 years, Barton was president of the American National Red Cross… Clara Barton's own works [such as] The Story of My Childhood (1907) are important both as firsthand accounts and for gaining her perspective" (ANB). The man to whom this copy is inscribed, Richard Watson Gilder, was the iconic editor of Scribner's Monthly and Century Magazine. He was also born and raised in Bordentown, New Jersey, where Clara Barton lived while founding the state's first free public school during the 1850s. Indeed, the Gilder's house was located about 700 feet (in a direct line) from Clara Barton's own house, as well as 700 feet from the Clara Barton School. In 1881, the same year that Gilder assumed the editorship of Century, Barton established the American Red Cross and assumed its presidency. Her accomplishments drew support and accolades from the nation at large throughout her life and she managed to weather numerous scandals over politics and her choice to stage humanitarian interventions in unpopular conflicts. At the same time, Richard Watson Gilder was also achieving great success. In addition to his pursuits as an editor, author, and poet, he "was the confidant of Presidents Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt. He was a personal friend of Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Robert Louis Stevensen and other literary giants of the day… [He was also] instrumental in preserving many historically significant buildings in New York City, pursued civil service reform, international copyright protection, education reform for the underprivileged and many supporting arts based programs" (HMDB). This work, inscribed toward the end of Clara Barton's life—she died in 1912—to another of the era's most famous activists is particularly desirable.

Tape repair to tipped-in presentation leaf, paper repair to outer margin of title page and inner margin of frontispiece; text generally quite nice, binding fine.