Toussaint L'Ouverture First Edition - James Redpath - Bauman Rare Books

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Toussaint L'Ouverture

James REDPATH | Toussaint L'OUVERTURE | Toussaint LOUVERTURE

Item#: 120096 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Toussaint L'Ouverture

Toussaint L'Ouverture

Toussaint L'Ouverture

"THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION FOREVER TRANSFORMED THE WORLD": FIRST EDITION OF RADICAL JOURNALIST JAMES REDPATH'S BIOGRAPHY OF TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE, 1863, PUBLISHED AT THE HEIGHT OF THE CIVIL WAR

(LOUVERTURE, Toussaint) REDPATH, James. Toussaint L'Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography. Boston: James Redpath, 1863. Octavo, original gilt-lettered green cloth.

First edition of Redpath's pivotal work on Toussaint Louverture, the epic "soldier, the statesman, the martyr" who led the Haitian Revolution—"the only successful slave revolt in world history"—with frontispiece portrait, folding color map of Haiti and facsimile leaf of Louverture's signature, an especially handsome copy in original cloth.

Born enslaved, Haiti's Toussaint Louverture launched "a revolution in 1791 that became the only successful slave revolt in world history" (Gerard, Toussaint Louverture, 1). His first major biographer, James Redpath, was a successful printer and journalist before making three early trips through the antebellum South, where he secretly interviewed a number of slaves. On moving to Kansas in the mid-1850s, Redpath became "an important 'intermediary'" between John Brown and the Secret Six. In many ways, "no other abolitionist has as great an impact on Brown's decision to launch a second Haitian Revolution" in the Harpers Ferry Raid. Toussaint Louverture, as well as "Haiti and its history, fascinated Redpath." Visiting it several times in the early 1850s, he "spoke with men who had fought alongside the great Black general, authoring and publishing this biography of Louverture in 1863" (Clavin, Toussaint Louverture, 49-50) "The Haitian Revolution forever transformed the world. It was a central part of the destruction of slavery in the Americas and therefore a crucial moment in the history of democracy, one that laid the foundation for the continuing struggles for human rights everywhere" (Dubois, Avengers of the New World, 7). First edition, first printing. Published anonymously. Sabin 42356.

A fine copy.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
Armorial Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.
Association Copy copy that belonged to someone connected with the author or the contents of a book.
Boards Hard front and rear covers of a bound book which are covered in cloth, leather or paper. “Original boards” refers to cardboard-like front and back boards, from about 1700 to 1840, used as temporary protection for books before their purchasers would have them bound. Of particular value to collectors as evidence of a very early form of the book.
Book-Plate Label, generally affixed to the front pastedown, identifying a book’s owner.
Broadside Sheet printed on one side, typically for public display, usually larger than folio size (a folio being a broadside-size sheet printed on both sides and folded once, to make four pages).
Calf Binding material made from cowhide—versatile, durable, usually tan or brown in color, of smooth texture with no or little apparent grain. Readily marbled (“tree calf”), mottled, diced, colored, polished, tooled in gilt or blind, even scented (known as “russia”). Reverse calf, with a distinctive suede-like texture, is occasionally used.
Chromolithograph Lithograph printed in colors, typically three or more.
Collation Process by which the contents of a book are inspected for completeness, checking against internal evidence, the table of contents and/or plate list, and reference works. Also a shorthand bibliographical description of a book’s composition by its leaves and signatures, rather than its pages. A-C, for example, would indicate a quarto volume composed of three signatures or gatherings of eight pages each for a total of 24 pages.
Colophon Printed note at the end of a text containing information about the printing of the book.
Doublure Pastedowns made not of paper but of leather, for decorative purposes.
Duodecimo (12MO) Smaller than an octavo, typically less than six inches tall; smaller formats, such as 24mo and 32mo, are uncommon.
Edition Print-run from a single setting of type without substantial change. Depending on demand, any number of printings can be made from a setting of type For example, a first printing might consist of 1000 copies, followed by a second printing of 2500 copies; in which case the book would have a first edition, first printing of 1000 copies, and a first edition, second printing of 2500 copies.
Endpapers Extra leaves—plain, colored or decorated—with which a bookbinder covers the insides of the book’s boards, therefore not part of the actual text block. The part of the leaf pasted to the inside of the front board is the front “pastedown,” while the other part of the leaf that forms the first page of the book is the “front free endpaper”; the same applies to the rear pastedown and rear free endpaper.
Engraving Illustration produced by carving lines into a metal plate. This is an intaglio process, in which ink is poured over the plate, then wiped from the surface, leaving ink only in the recesses made by the engraver’s tools. The image is then transferred by pressing thick dampened paper against the metal plate with great force—requiring engravings to be printed on a separate stock and separate press from any text.
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Half Title Leaf preceding the title page that bears the book’s title, originally used to identify the unbound text block. The book’s binder would often remove and discard the half title at the time of binding. Remaining half-titles are therefore of interest to collectors.
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Japanese Vellum Expensive handmade paper often used in deluxe editions.
Lithograph Illustration produced by transferring an image drawn on a carefully prepared stone to paper. The process allowed illustrations to more closely resemble the original drawings, paintings or sketches, as it gave the lithographer a freedom of line impossible to achieve in earlier intaglio and relief processes. It does not require the same sort of pressure as an engraving to transfer the image, but still has to be printed on separate stock from the text
Marginalia Handwritten notes made in the margins by a previous owner.
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Morocco Binding material made from goatskin—versatile, durable, with a distinctive pebbled texture and visible grain. Readily stretched (“straight-grain”), crushed (flattened smooth), tooled in gilt or blind, inlaid with leathers of different colors. So-called because much of the raw material originally came from the tanneries of North Africa (other types of goatskin bindings denoting regions of origin include levant, turkey, niger).
Offset The unintended transfer of ink from one printed page to an adjacent page.
Period-Style binding executed with materials, tools and techniques to approximate the look of a contemporary binding from the period of the book’s publication. The term implies that the binding is modern, or recent, unless otherwise specified.
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Wood-Engraving Engraving made with the graver or burin on the cross-section of a piece of boxwood; the harder wood and finer tools allow for more delicate, finely detailed images, while the block can still be set in the page alongside text and printed on the same stock as the text. While much older, wood engravings enjoyed an important renaissance in the late eighteenth century through Thomas Bewick and continued in popularity thorugh the nineteenth century.
Wormhole Tiny pinhole-sized trails left by bookworms as they eat through a text block. Much more common in older books printed on handmade papers with a high rag content than in books printed on manufactured papers made from wood pulp with a higher acidic content.
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