"THE MOST INFLUENTIAL AFRICAN AMERICAN OF THE 19TH CENTURY": NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS, 1845 FIRST EDITION IN ORIGINAL CLOTH

DOUGLASS, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Boston: Published at the Anti-Slavery Office, 1845. 12mo (4-3/4 by 7 inches), original blind- and gilt-stamped brown cloth.; pp. xvi, 125. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First edition of Douglass' powerful autobiography, published only seven years after his escape from slavery, with engraved portrait of Douglass, in original cloth.

"The history of African Americans cannot be told without reference to Douglass' writings" (Cambridge Companion, 2). "The most influential African American of the 19th century, Douglass… understood that the struggle for emancipation and equality demanded forceful, persistent, and unyielding agitation… Less than a month before his death, when a young black man solicited his advice to an African American just starting out in the world, he replied without hesitation: 'Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!'" Douglass wrote his Narrative (later expanded into My Bondage and My Freedom, 1855) after escaping from slavery in 1838. He spent several years lecturing for antislavery societies, a time during which he was "often subjected to verbal assaults, barrages of rotten eggs and vegetables and mob violence. And, as a fugitive slave, his growing visibility placed him in constant danger" (ANB). William Lloyd Garrison and Wendell Phillips, who respectively wrote the preface and an introduction to this edition, "had advised Douglass to burn the manuscript unless he would be recaptured and enslaved again," but he chose to answer those fears with this autobiography, a volume that is "probably the best known narrative of the ante-bellum period" (Blockson, 27). Douglass' Narrative is a "masterpiece of American literary art… without peer" (Houston A. Baker, Jr). With engraved frontispiece portrait of Douglass; without initial blank leaf. Sabin 20711. Blockson 9739. Work, 474. Brignano 432. Bookplate of Richards Merry Bradley and Amy Aldis Bradley, descendants of leading early New England families. The forefathers of attorney and philanthropist Richards include Stephen Rowe Bradley, who fought in the Revolution under General Ethan Allen and was the first U.S. Senator for Vermont. Amy, a European-trained sculptor, was the daughter of influential Civil War judge Asa Owen Aldis.

Interior fresh and crisp, only mild discoloration to bright-gilt cloth. An about-fine copy with a distinguished provenance, rarely found in such handsome condition.