U.S. Grant and the American Military Tradition.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, [1954]. Hardcover. Edited by Oscar Handlin. 8vo. Blue cloth with gilt spine lettering. x, 201pp. Very good. Spine lettering rubbed and rear board scuffed, else internally tight and nice, with endpapers (only) age toned at gutter. Item #50789
Decent first edition of the first volume in "The Library of American Biography" series. Interesting provenance: From the collection of Illinois governor and twice presidential candidate Adlai E. Stevenson II (1900-65) and later his son, Illinois senator Adlai E. Stevenson III (1930-2021), both well-known admirers of the 18th president. Their only markings in it are four margin checkmarks in blue ballpoint on three pages -- but whether these are Governor Stevenson's or Senator Stevenson's checkmarks cannot be ascertained with certainty. (We suspect the former, especially since the first such mark alongside Catton's sentence "Grant had been the most popular man in America when he entered the White House, and he was a great distance from being the most popular when at last he left it" suggests the man beaten twice by Eisenhower found Catton's observation appropo-- as if commenting "Take that!") An intriguing copy of a routine title.
Price: $75.00