Colonel Elmer Ellsworth: A Biography of Lincoln's Friend and First Hero of the Civil War.
Boston: Little, Brown and Company, [1960]. Hardcover. 8vo. Blue paper over boards with silver spine lettering, pictorial price-clipped dust jacket. xviii, 295pp. Illustrations. Near fine/very good. Jacket faintly edgeworn and a tad rubbed; small "x" inked on bottom page edges. Item #51702
First edition, tight and handsome, of this sensitive biography of the first Union officer killed in the Civil War. This copy with choice autograph addition: Tipped in facing the title page is a unique frontispiece, an Autograph Note Signed from Randall: Heavy stock 5½" X 3½" correspondence card, Urbana, IL, 17 January 1955. Addressed to "Dear Estelle" -- wife of Ralph G. Newman (1911-98, founder of Chicago's noted Abraham Lincoln Book Shop). Fine. On her imprinted "Mrs. J.G. Randall" card, Randall boldly pens in black ink this cordial note: "I wish it were possible for me to accept the most alluring invitation of you and Ralph to the birthday party of an old friend but I cannot make a trip to Chicago at that time. Thank you both so much for inviting me. I hope it won't be too long before I can see the Newmans again. Do you ever drive through Urbana?" Signed boldly in full at the close; address portion on verso also in Randall's hand. NEVINS II, 84.
Price: $95.00