Lincoln's Fifth Wheel: The Political History of the United States Sanitary Commission.
New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1956. Hardcover. Preface by Allan Nevins. 8vo. Dark blue cloth with gilt spine lettering, pictorial dust jacket. xii, 372pp. Very good/very good. Faint binding and jacket edgewear, with vertical stain from long-ago tape strip on each pastedown. Item #45430
Quite tight, decent first edition of what Archer Jones critiques as "A scholarly and comprehensive narrative, covering all aspects of the sick." While this copy is a discreet, inoffensive ex-library copy with very few markings, it bears an outstanding-content autograph addition: Tipped to front flyleaf is a Typed Letter Signed from preface-provider Nevins, 1p, 8" X 10½", New York, NY, 6 April 1956. Addressed to Ralph Newman (1912-99, founder of Chicago's Abraham Lincoln Book Shop). Very good. Original folds. On Columbia University's "Oral History Research Office" letterhead, Nevins chats with his good friend about which Civil War titles should be re-released, perhaps for the Civil War Book Club: "While Vandiver's Confederate High Command does not quite stand along I am sure that in conjunction with another small book it would be very satisfactory.... don't you think we ought to agree on a systematic plan for reissuing some of the best short Civil War books; the books that are almost or quite classic in the field? George Cary Eggleston's A Rebel's Recollections...is well worth reissuing. So is Ira S. Dodd's Song of the Rappahannock.... So is Henry E. Blake's Three Years With the Army of the Potomac.... Most important of all would be a reissue...of the Civil War Diary of George Templeton Strong...." Of the book into which this letter is tipped, Nevins comments near the close, "I hope Bill Maxwell's fine book is going well...." Boldly signed simply "Allan" in blue ballpoint. ALLAN NEVINS (1890-1971) is the Pulitzer Prize-winning American historian best remembered for his 8-volume "Ordeal of the Union" (1947-71). NEVINS I, 11.
Price: $75.00