Stonewall Jackson: A Military Biography

John E. COOKE   |   Stonewall JACKSON

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Stonewall Jackson: A Military Biography
Stonewall Jackson: A Military Biography

"VALUABLE FOR COMMUNICATING THE POPULAR SOUTHERN FEELING OF THE DAY": COOKE'S CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF STONEWALL JACKSON, 1876, WITH 13 FULL-PAGE STEEL-ENGRAVED PORTRAITS, TWO WOOD-ENGRAVED PLATES AND SIX MAPS

(JACKSON, Stonewall) COOKE, John Esten. Stonewall Jackson: A Military Biography. With an Appendix Containing Personal Reminiscences by Rev. J. Wm. Jones. New York: D. Appleton, 1876. Thick octavo, contemporary three-quarter brown morocco, raised bands, marbled boards, endpapers and edges.

1876 preferred edition of Cooke's influential biography of Stonewall Jackson, the first to include the important appendix, with 13 full-page steel-engraved portraits of Civil War generals, including Jackson and Robert E. Lee, six maps (five full-page and one folding), and two wood-engraved plates, including one of Lee and Jackson's last meeting.

Virginia novelist, historian and Confederate officer John Esten Cooke was an "important Southern writer both before and after the Civil War" (Bredahl, New Ground, 17). Cooke, "an ardent secessionist… served through the entire war, surrendering with Lee at Appomattox… He was at heart a chivalric Cavalier, who idealized the past and was unreservedly devoted to Virginia. His books… of the Civil War will unquestionably survive" (ANB). Cooke's influential early contemporary biography of Stonewall Jackson is especially "valuable for communicating the popular Southern feeling of the day regarding its dead hero of the battlefield" (Eicher 247). With this work "the notion of a quirky genius, which still colors the public perception of Jackson, first reached the reading public" (Hettle, Inventing Stonewall Jackson). First issued in 1863, this 1876 edition is the first to contain Reverend Jones' appendix describing the historic unveiling of Foley's statue of Jackson, presented to Virginia by England in 1875. Dornbusch II:2823. Wright 1181. Library ink stamp partially erased from title page, causing small hole; remnants of circulation pocket on rear flyleaf. Owner signature. Large color reproduction of portrait of Jackson mounted to front pastedown.

Text generally clean, a bit of light rubbing to binding. An extremely good copy in contemporary morocco.

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