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Henry Adams' Legendary Autobiography

ADAMS, HENRY BROOKS.

The Education of Henry Adams.

Place and Imprint: Washington: [Privately Printed], 1907.
Edition: First edition, privately printed.
Bibliographical References: BAL 32.
Condition: Cloth skillfully repaired at the corners, edges and hinges; early damp-stain on the top edges and lower board, slightly affecting the top blank margins; label a little worn; very good cop, enclosed in a blue cloth clamshell case.
Book ID: 29025

Physical Description

Large 4to, original blue cloth, reddish-brown leather spine label, gilt lettering, untrimmed.

Comments

One of the most famous of all American autobiographies and the book for which Henry Adams is best known: a rich exploration of history and the writing of history told through Adams' life. Henry Adams published two great works of history late in life, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres (1904) followed by The Education in 1907. Both were privately printed at Adams' expense, in highly limited editions, intended for friends, persons written about in the text, and those competent to comment on Adams' ideas and suggest changes. Neither were intended for public distribution. Harold Dean Cater in Henry Adams and His Friends (1947), wrote that Adams initially had “only forty copies [of The Education] printed, but that demand for it became so great that he had to have more copies made later.” – see BAL 32. The Education was not published in a trade edition until 1918, with an "Editor's Preface by Henry Cabot Lodge" which Adams wrote himself and signed "H.C.L." Two years after that it won the Pulitzer Prize. In 2007, one hundred years after its first publication in this limited edition, The Education of Henry Adams is still celebrated as one of the finest American books of the 20th century.

Price: $18,500.00