HANDSOMELY BOUND FIRST ISSUE OF UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, WITH A TIPPED-IN AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED BY STOWE

STOWE, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly. Boston and Cleveland: John P. Jewett; Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, 1852. Two volumes. Octavo, mid-20th-century three-quarter navy morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spines, raised bands, top edges gilt; original cloth covers and spines bound in at rear of each volume. Housed together in a custom clamshell box.

First edition, first issue, of Stowe's classic and vastly influential novel, with an autograph letter signed by Stowe tipped in.

"Within a decade after its publication Uncle Tom's Cabin had become the most popular novel ever written by an American… There is substantial evidence that the book precipitated the American Civil War" (Downs, Books That Changed America, 108). "Uncle Tom's Cabin exploded like a bombshell. To those engaged in fighting slavery it appeared as an indictment of all the evils inherent in the system they opposed; to the pro-slavery forces it was a slanderous attack on 'the Southern way of life'… The social impact of [the novel] on the United States was greater than that of any book before or since" (PMM 332).

The tipped in letter, on a single sheet of ruled stationery, is dated "Hartford, March 17, 1891" and reads: "Dear Miss Root, Your note of March 16 is just received. There is a volume of my religious poems entitled Mrs. Stowe's religious poems, published by Houghton Mifflin & Co at Boston, Mass. Sincerely Yours, Harriet Beecher Stowe." First published in serial form (in National Era, from June 5, 1851 to April 1, 1852), the book gained "an ever-increasing audience as the story progressed;" by the time the first edition in book form saw print (March 20, 1852—before the serial publication even ended), "an eager public was waiting to buy it, and over 10,000 copies of the two-volume work were sold in the first week" (Patkus & Schlosser). First edition, first issue, with "spilt" on page 42, line 1, and all other first printing points. With title vignettes and six wood-engravings. Original cloth (BAL's binding "B," no priority established) bound in at rear of each volume. BAL 19343.

A fine copy, beautifully bound.