Politics & Law

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Fine%2520bindings" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">finely bound</a>, Federal Edition of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Fine%2520bindings&amp;query=The%20Works%20Of%20Benjamin%20Franklin&amp;tab=objects" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Works Of Benjamin Franklin</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 12 volumes.</li><li>Benjamin Franklin (American).</li><li>Compiled and edited by John Bigelow.</li><li>Boston:&nbsp;G.P. Putnam's Sons,&nbsp;1904.</li><li>Limited to 1,000 copies of which this is 398.</li><li>Bound in three-quarters red morocco with marbled boards, gilt-tooling on the covers and raised band spines, top edges gilt, marbled endpapers.</li></ul>

The Works Of Benjamin Franklin

A first edition copy of My Bondage and My Freedom, by Frederick Douglass.<ul><li>Frederick Douglass (American).</li><li>My Bondage and My Freedom: Part I - Life as a Slave, Part II - Life as a Freeman...with an Introduction by Dr.James M'Cune Smith.</li><li>New York and Auburn:&nbsp;Miller, Orton and Mulligan, 1855.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>464 pages.</li><li>With frontispiece and plates.</li><li>Bound in the publisher's brown cloth, blocked in blind, spine lettered in gilt, yellow endpapers.</li></ul> Douglass published his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life, in 1845 in which he described his years in captivity in Maryland and his eventual escape and involvement in the abolition movement. "Published seven years after the author escaped slavery. It is probably the best known narrative of the ante-bellum period" (Blockson). Ten years later, he heavily revised and expanded his autobiography as the present My Bondage and My Freedom. Almost three times the length of the Narrative, My Bondage provides considerably more detail about Douglass' enslavement and escape and includes events which had occurred between 1845 and 1855 as a free man. Notably, the book also includes an appendix with extracts from some of Douglass notable speeches, including both his famous "Letter to His Old Master" and "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July." The work also includes a new introduction by African American abolitionist James McCune Smith, whom Douglass described as "the single most important influence" on his life. The book was an instant bestseller, selling around 5,000 copies in two days.

My Bondage and My Freedom

A first English language edition of de Tocqueville's Democracy in America.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2 volumes.</li><li>Alexis de Tocqueville (French, 1805-1859)</li><li>Translated by Henry Reeve.</li><li>London:&nbsp;Saunders and Otley,&nbsp;1835.&nbsp;</li><li>Octavos.</li><li>With hand-colored foldout map in volume 2.&nbsp;</li><li>Both volumes with one leaf of ads in rear.</li><li>Bound in contemporary half brown leather with marbled paper boards, morocco labels with gilt lettering to spines.</li></ul>

Democracy in America

A first edition copy of the trial transcript of Richard Johnson.<ul><li>A correct copy of the trial &amp; conviction of Richard Johnson for the murder of Ursula Newman, on the 20th Nov. 1828, by shooting her with a pistol loaded with buck shot or slugs, nine of which entered her body; together with the charge of the court, and the confession of the prisoner of his entention to have added suicide to the horrid and appalling murder for which he is to suffer an ignomenious death, and his letter to a friend in Philadelphia previous to his conviction.</li><li>New York: by Christian Brown, n.d., [1829].</li><li>Includes a woodcut illustration of the murder on title page.</li><li>Original stitching, entirely uncut as issued.</li></ul> Johnson had been living with Mrs. Newman for several years. He had urged her to marry him, and, although she had had a child by him, she refused to wed him, nor would she even acknowledge that the child was his. Apparently distracted by this and business worries, Johnson shot and killed her. He was hanged on Blackwell’s (now Welfare) Island at the same time as Catherine Cashier.

A Correct Copy of the Trial and Conviction of Richard Johnson

A copy of the transcripts of the Trial of William Dandridge Epes.<ul><li>Trial of William Dandridge Epes, for the Murder of Francis Adolphus Muir, Dinwiddie County, Virginia: Including the Testimony Submitted in the Case, the Speeches of Counsel, &amp;C. To Which Are Added the Confessions of the Prisoner, an Account of His Execution, &amp;C. &amp;C.</li><li>Petersburg, Virginia: J.M.H. Brunet, Reporter, 1849.</li></ul> In order to avoid foreclosure of his property in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, Epes murdered Francis Adolphus Muir, the mortgage holder, on February 2, 1846, when Muir showed up to collect payment. Epes shot him and buried the body in a grove of trees on his property. "He faked a series of letters to account for Muir's absence" [McDade]. When the body was discovered in July, 1846, Epes fled to Texas. He was eventually captured almost two years later and tried at Dinwiddie County, where he was convicted and hanged. "Pawning the victim's watch led to the arrest and conviction of Epes for the murder of Francis Muir, who had threatened to foreclose on property he had sold Epes." This is the only separately published contemporary account of a significant Virginia trial, including the prisoner's execution speech. The case was notable enough to be included, with a full introduction, in Lawson, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS, Vol. 3, 1915, pp. 412-520. Adding to its importance in the annals of crime in antebellum Virginia was the participation of four distinguished members of the Virginia bench and bar who would later play significant roles in the Confederacy: John W. Nash, presiding judge; William T. Joynes and Timothy Rives, counsel for the defense; and Thomas Saunders Gholson, counsel for the prosecution. Lawson notes that the evidence against Epes "was very strong on all points, but his lawyers fought strenuously for his life," despite which, only minutes after Gholson's closing argument, the jury returned a guilty verdict of first-degree murder.

Trial of William Dandridge Epes

A first edition set of the biography of Abraham Lincoln.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2 volumes.</li><li>Albert J. Beveridge (American, 1862-1927).</li><li>Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1928.</li><li>With frontis portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, and illustrations.</li><li>Bound in half blue morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spines, top edges gilt.</li></ul> Beveridge spent most of his final years writing the biography of Abraham Lincoln, which was posthumously published in two volumes in 1928. His biography was very scholarly and stripped away the myths about Lincoln to reveal a complex and imperfect politician. In 1939, the American Historical Association established the Beveridge Award in his memory through a gift from his widow and donations from members.

Abraham Lincoln 1809-1858

A finely bound collection of the Life of Washington.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 5 volumes.</li><li>Washington Irving (American).</li><li>Life of George Washington</li><li>New York: G.P. Putnam &amp; Co., 1857.</li><li>Bound in three-quarter brown calf and marbled boards with the raised band spines gilt-tooled with tan and green morocco labels, all of the edges are marbled with marbled endpapers.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Life of Washington

A typed letter by former President Roosevelt to former American ambassador to France Jesse Straus.<ul><li>Franklin Delano Roosevelt (American).</li><li>New York: 1932.&nbsp;</li><li>One-page typed letter on "Executive Mansion" stationary signed by FDR in black ink.</li><li>Letter thanks Mr. Straus for his service and friendship and mentions "the serious problems that lie ahead."</li><li>Jesse Isidor Straus (June 25, 1872 – October 4, 1936) was the son of Isidor Straus (1845–1912) and Ida Straus (1849–1912), both of whom died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic.</li></ul>

Typed Letter To Jesse Straus

The second edition in English of the first part, and the first edition in English of the second part of Tocqueville's Democracy In America.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4 volumes.</li><li>Alexis de Tocqueville (French).</li><li>Translated by Henry Reeve.</li><li>London:&nbsp;Saunders and Otley,&nbsp;1836 and 1840.</li><li>Octavos.</li><li>Volume one with half title.</li><li>With hand-colored foldout map.&nbsp;</li><li>Bound in quarter brown leather with marbled paper boards, newly rebacked with paneled spines and red and black labels with gilt lettering, edges of text blocks marbled, with marbled endpapers, all four volumes with Drayton Manor armorial bookplates of Sir Robert Peel to the front pastedowns</li></ul>

Democracy In America

A limited-edition, signed copy of President Johnson's The Vantage Point: Perspectives Of The Presidency 1963-1969.<ul><li>Lyndon B. Johnson (American).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Holt Reinhart Winston,&nbsp;1971.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Numbered 124.</li><li>Signed flat on the limitation page by Johnson.</li><li>Additionally inscribed on the dedication page: "To Michael Cohen Who helped make these years productive ones — from his friend Lyndon B. Johnson," with a calling card from Mr. and Mrs. Lyndon Baines Johnson and a handwritten "Merry Christmas" in red ink above.&nbsp;</li><li>Bound in publisher's notoriously fragile and brittle padded red leather, dull gilt lettering to spine.</li></ul>

The Vantage Point: Perspectives Of The Presidency 1963-1969

Finely bound early printings of Rights of Man, a letter addressed to Abbe Raynal and an 1815 horse show advertisement.<ul><li>Thomas Paine (English-American).</li><li>London: H. D. Symonds; J. Ridgway, 1792–1815.</li><li>iv, 78 pages, vii, [1], pp. [9]-90, [4], [4], pp. [5]-45.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Bound in full unsigned straight-grained morocco, elaborate gilt dicing to boards, paneled spine with gilt titling and tooling and all edges gilt.</li></ul>

Rights of Man

First edition of An Appeal by an Old Member of Parliament.<ul><li>Attributed to Arthur Lee (American).</li><li>London:&nbsp;J. Almon,&nbsp;1774.&nbsp;</li><li>An Appeal to the Justice and Interests of the People of Great Britain in the Present Disputes with America by an Old Member of Parliament.</li><li>[2], 63 pages, [4].&nbsp;</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Four pages of publisher's ads appear at back.&nbsp;</li><li>Pamphlet later bound in light blue boards.</li></ul>

An Appeal to the Justice and Interests of the People of Great Britain

First edition of Douglass' autobiography.<ul><li>Frederick Douglass (American).</li><li>Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave.</li><li>Boston:&nbsp;Anti-Slavery Office,&nbsp;1845.&nbsp;</li><li>xvi, 125 pages.&nbsp;</li><li>Bound in publisher's brown cloth with lettering in gilt and stamping in blind.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

First Sparks edition and the first collected edition large paper copies of correspondence, addresses, messages and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts, The Writings of George Washington, with A Life of the Author, notes and illustrations by Jared Sparks.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 12.</li><li>George Washington (American).</li><li>Jared Sparks (American).</li><li>Boston: American Stationers’ Company; Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Metcalf, and Hilliard, Gray, and Co.; Boston: Russell, Shattuck, and Williams, and Hilliard, Gray, and Co. 1834-1837.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>All first issues except volume III which is a second issue.</li><li>Illustrated with frontispieces to four volumes and thirty further plates as called for.</li><li>Bound in recent tan half calf over marbled boards, gilt titles on red and green morocco squares to spines, gilt tooling to spines, marbled endpapers.</li></ul>

The Writings of George Washington

First edition of this collection of eight popular booklets issued by the National Woman Suffrage Association, designed especially for the convenience of suffrage speakers and writers and for the use of debaters and libraries; in the scarce dust jacket and with an inserted publisher's notice listing new legislative gains made in the year since publication<ul><li>Jane Addams (American).</li><li>Carrie Chapman Catt (American).</li><li>Edited by Frances Maule Björkman (American).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;National Woman Suffrage Association,&nbsp;[1912].</li><li>Publisher's "Important Notice" laid in, noting several legal changes between the book's 1912 publication and June 1913.</li><li>Bound in original blue cloth, in original brown printed dust jacket.</li></ul> The volume was edited by Frances Maule Björkman, socialist and member of the Heterodoxy feminist debating club of Greenwich Village, and Annie G. Porritt, a follower of Alice Paul and the National Women's Party. Their names, along with the informal title The Blue Book, would later appear on the title page of the revised edition. Full contents include: "Why Women Should Vote," by Jane Addams; "Objections Answered: Why Should Women Vote?" by Alice Stone Blackwell; "Where Women Vote," by Björkman; "Do You Know," by Carrie Chapman Catt; "A Comon-Sense View of Woman Suffrage," by Jesse Lynch Williams; "Why Women Want to Vote," by Björkman; "Measuring Up Equal Suffrage: An Authoritative Estimate of Results in Chicago," by George Creel and Ben B. Lindsey; and "Eminent Opinions on Woman Suffrage," a selection of quotations from Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Mark Twain and many other notable figures. A landmark publication in US political history.

Woman Suffrage: Arguments and Results

Collection of Black Panther handbills from 1969 and 1970.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3.</li><li>New York/Philadelphia: 1969/1970.&nbsp;</li></ul> Mimeographed light yellow handbill issued in New York on December 8, 1969.<ul><li>New York: 1969.</li><li>Two-page handbill on one sheet.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>The recto is headlined “Stop the Persecution of the Black Panther Party” and addresses the death of Hampton.</li><li>The bottom announces an anti-Nixon demonstration at the Waldorf.</li><li>The verso advertises the fundraising efforts of the Defense Committee for the Wilmington 8.</li></ul> Mimeographed beige handbill printed April 1969.<ul><li>New York: 1969.</li><li>1 page.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>Announcing a demonstration at the bail hearing for the Panther 21.</li></ul> Mimeographed white handbill printed by the Philadelphia branch of the Black Panther Party.<ul><li>Philadelphia: 1970.</li><li>Two-page handbill on single sheet.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>Headlined “Cisco-Kidd Pig Rizzo Oinks Again!”</li></ul>

Black Panther Handbills 

Pamphlet collection of documents regarding the Eleventh Amendment of the United States.<ul><li>Message from the President of the United States, Accompanying A Report from the Secretary of State, and Copies of Acts of the Legislatures of the States of Connecticut, Maryland, and Virginia, Ratifying the Amendment Proposed by Congress, Concerning the Suability of States, in Pursuance of A Resolution of the Two Houses, of the Second of March Last.</li><li>Washington, D.C.&nbsp;U.S. House of Representatives,&nbsp;1798.</li><li>12 pages.</li><li>Duodecimo.</li><li>Side-sewn pamphlet.</li></ul>

Regarding the Eleventh Amendment of the United States

First edition of John F. Kennedy’s first book, Why England Slept, inscribed to newsman Arthur Krock.<ul><li>John F. Kennedy (American).</li><li>Inscribed to Arthur Krock: “To Mr. Krock. Who Baptized, Christened, and was Best Man for this book — with my sincere thanks, Jack Kennedy.”</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Wilfred Funk, Inc,&nbsp;1940.</li><li>&nbsp;xx, 252 pp.</li><li>8vo.</li><li>Publisher’s rose cloth.</li><li>Sold as a set of 4 titles authored by Kennedy, including As We Remember Joe, The Enemy Within, The Fruitful Bough: A Tribute to Joseph P. Kennedy.</li></ul> Arthur Krock (1886-1974), the “Dean of Washington Newsmen,” was Washington correspondent and bureau chief for The New York Times and wrote the “In the Nation” column. He was a close friend and political ally of Joe Kennedy and his children. He advised John F. Kennedy with the revisions of his 1939 senior honors paper, "Appeasement in Munich,” in preparation for its publication the following year. It was Krock who suggested the new title, Why England Slept, a response to Churchill’s While England Slept. Krock would continue to advise the young Kennedy, who thanked him In the Preface to Profiles in Courage. Ted Kennedy wrote admiringly of Krock in his tribute volume to his father: “Mr. Krock has long been one of the most respected newsmen and columnists in Washington. He won two Pulitzer Prizes for his work. He met Dad [Joseph Kennedy] during the New Deal years and won his deep admiration. Mr. Krock advised President Kennedy in the writing of his first book, Why England Slept, and has been a source of valued help to my brothers and myself.” (Edward Kennedy, The Fruitful Bough: A Tribute to Joseph P. Kennedy, p. 112) Additional included titles: As We Remember Joe. Edited by John F. Kennedy. Privately Printed: Cambridge, Mass, 1945. First edition, second issue. Original burgundy cloth. Fine copy. Inscribed, “For Martha and Arthur Krock, Bob Kennedy. Christmas 1965.” Krock contributed a short reminiscence of Joe Kennedy from the 1940 Democratic National Convention, pp. 39-41. The Enemy Within. Kennedy, Robert F. Harper &amp; Brothers: New York, 1960. First edition. Publisher’s cloth. Spine faded. Inscribed, “To Arthur Krock, With the thanks and admiration of his friend, Bob Kennedy.” Krock wrote the foreword to The Enemy Within. The Fruitful Bough: A Tribute to Joseph P. Kennedy. Collected by Edward M. Kennedy. Privately Printed, 1965. Original blue cloth. Some scuffing to front cover. Inscribed, “To Arthur Krock, Who helped make The Fruitful Bough possible. With appreciation. Ted Kennedy. Sept 6 1965.” With carbon of typescript of Krock's contribution to the volume as submitted for editing.

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Benjamin Franklin

Frederick Douglass

Alexis de Tocqueville

Albert J. Beveridge

Washington Irving

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Alexis de Tocqueville

Lyndon B. Johnson

Thomas Paine

Attributed to Arthur Lee

Frederick Douglass

George Washington

Various Authors

JOHN F. KENNEDY