Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, and What I Saw There. Philadelphia: JW. Bradley, 1854.
Early edition.
Twelvemo. 240 pp., plus frontispiece drawn by G.C. White & engraved by John Sartain. Original red cloth, covers and spine elaborately decorated in gilt with vignette of drunkard and pleading wife stamped in gilt to both covers, all edges gilt. A fine copy, fine crisp interior (with none of the foxing so common to this book), the gilt to binding remarkably bright. Laid in are two ALS, one from the author, and one from the artist. An exceptional copy.
Early edition of what is widely considered to be the most important American temperance book. The story of a small town miller who decides to open a tavern, it traces the resulting moral and physical decline of the miller, his family & the entire town. An extremely popular book, which was made even more popular by a version for the stage which was produced soon after the book was published, it significantly contributed to the demonization of alcohol in the eyes of the public.
Arthur (1809-85) was a popular American writer best known for the present work. He edited his own periodical Arthur's Home Magazine, and wrote numerous stories for Godey's Lady's Book.
Sartain (1808-97) was an English-born American engraver and oil painter who engraved numerous plates for the popular Graham's Monthly Magazine. He was a close friend and colleague of Edgar Allan Poe (who served as the editor of Graham's) as well as the publisher of Sartain's Union Magazine, which contained the first authorized printings of Poe's poems "Annabel Lee" and "The Bells."
Grolier 100 American Books; see Wright 131
ID:
4174
$
1,000