Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$8000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, first issue, with "spilt" (rather than "spiled") in Volume I, 42, line 1; "cathecism" (rather than "catechism") in volume II, 74, line 5; and all other first issue points of the author's classic work. Octavo, 2 volumes, bound in contemporary three quarters leather over cloth, gilt titles to the spine, volume with title vignettes and six wood-engravings. In very good condition with light wear and toning. A nice example, scarce and desirable in contemporary binding. âIn the emotion-charged atmosphere of mid-19th century America Uncle Tomâs 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 âthe Southern way of lifeâ⦠the social impact of [the novel] on the United States was greater than that of any book before or sinceâ (PMM 332). âWithin a decade after its publication Uncle Tomâs Cabin had become the most popular novel ever written by an American⦠there is substantial evidence that the book precipitated the American Civil Warâ (Downs, Books That Changed America, 108).
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Price: US$11000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, first issue of the author's classic work. Octavo, original cloth, volume with title vignettes and six wood-engravings. In very good condition. With a rare carte-de-visite and note card signed "truly yours HB Stowe." Comes with a first edition of Stowe's A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin, published in 1853. Housed in a custom case. âIn the emotion-charged atmosphere of mid-19th century America Uncle Tomâs 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 âthe Southern way of lifeâ⦠the social impact of [the novel] on the United States was greater than that of any book before or sinceâ (PMM 332). âWithin a decade after its publication Uncle Tomâs Cabin had become the most popular novel ever written by an American⦠there is substantial evidence that the book precipitated the American Civil Warâ (Downs, Books That Changed America, 108).
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.
Price: US$11500.00 + shipping
Description: A lovely copy of one of the most influential books on 19th century America. Mrs. Stowe's book and its widespread readership in the North solidified abolition sentiment and hastened the oncoming Civil War. This first edition has a scarce prospectus of the writings of Harriet Beecher Stowe laid in, which she has inscribed and signed "From Harriet Beecher Stowe." The prospectus is in the original mailing envelope addressed in Mrs. Stowe's hand and postmarked Hartford, Conn. Also laid in is an early 20th century description of this item by bookseller Harry F. Marks, along with an unused book tag for Marks's shop at Rockefeller Center. Faint contemporaneous inscriptions on endpapers of both volumes. The two volumes are housed in a custom slipcase. BAL #19343 binding "B" (priority not established). Near Fine. Some fading and light wear to the original cloth bindings.
Seller: Back Creek Books LLC, ABAA/ILAB, Annapolis, MD, U.S.A.
Price: US$15000.00 + shipping
Description: First edition, first issue. [iii]-x, [13]-312; 322pp. EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED with an autograph signature by Rev. Josiah Henson, Stowe's inspiration for Uncle Tom, in vol. 1, on The Christian Age letterhead and dated by the recipient 1876 and with an autograph letter, signed, by Stowe in vol. 2, to her publisher James Osgood. 2 vols. 12mo. With Rev. Henson's Autograph and Stowe A.L.s. tipped in. "In the emotion-charged atmosphere of mid-nineteenth-century America 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.' Whatever its weakness as a literary work -- structural looseness and excess of sentiment among them - the social impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin on the United States was greater than of any book before or since" (PMM). Published at the end of March 1852, 5000 copies of the first issue were published, with a second issue of an additional 5000 copies published on the first of April. By the middle of the month, both had been exhausted, with the publisher writing in the National Era: "Three paper mills are constantly at work, manufacturing the paper, and three power presses are working twenty-four hours per day, in printing it, and more than one hundred book-binders are incessantly plying their trade to bind them, and still it has been impossible, as yet, to supply the demand." By mid-October, 120,000 copies had been sold. The Stowe autograph letter, signed, inserted into this set is to her publisher James Osgood concerning an illustrated edition published by Houghton, Osgood, and Co. in 1878, reading in part: "Would it be any injury to delay the issuing of the book to the 13th of Jany - the reason is that Thursday I sail from Florida and should be out of the way of the noise of it. I am sick and tired of the fuss of the press that I want to escape it altogether. - There are three corrections that must be made in the plate proofs and I must trust you to see them done immediately .". Wright 2401; PMM 332; BAL 19343; Grolier American 61; Winship, "Uncle Tom's Cabin: History of the Book in the 19th-Century United States" presentation at the Uncle Tom's Cabin in the Web of Culture conference (June 2007) Modern full green morocco gilt, red morocco spine labels, marbled endpapers, t.e.g. Vol. 1 with original cloth gilt extra covers bound in [iii]-x, [13]-312; 322pp. EXTRA-ILLUSTRATED with an autograph signature by Rev. Josiah Henson, Stowe's inspiration for Uncle Tom, in vol. 1, on The Christian Age letterhead and dated by the recipient 1876 and with an autograph letter, signed, by Stowe in vol. 2, to her publisher James Osgood. 2 vols. 12mo
Seller: James Cummins Bookseller, ABAA, New York, NY, U.S.A.