B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S S U M M E R 2 0 2 3 39 "THE SOCIAL IMPACT ON THE UNITED STATES WAS GREATER THAN THAT OF ANY BOOK BEFORE OR SINCE": FIRST ISSUE OF UNCLE TOM'S CABIN IN RARE PUBLISHER'S EXTRA-GILT BLUE CLOTH GIFT BINDING, WITH SIGNED CARD FROM STOWE 39. STOWE, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin; Or, Life Among the Lowly. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co., 1852. Two volumes. Octavo, original publisher's extra-gilt blue cloth, cream endpapers, all edges gilt. $18,500 First edition, "rst issue, of Stowe's classic and vastly in!uential novel in rare original extra-gilt cloth gift binding. With a tipped-in card in Volume I inscribed, "Sincerely Your Friend / Harriet Beecher Stowe / Feby. 27 1894." "In the emotion-charged atmosphere of mid-19th century America Uncle Tom's Cabin exploded like a bombshell. To those engaged in !ghting 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'… the social impact of [the novel] on the United States was greater than that of any book before or since" (PMM 332). "Within a decade after its publication Uncle Tom's Cabin had become the most popular novel ever written by an American… there is substantial evidence that the book precipitated the American Civil War" (Downs, Books That Changed America, 108). With all !rst issue points in both volumes. BAL's cloth binding C (no priority established), the scarce extra-gilt blue cloth binding. BAL 19343. Grolier English 100, 91. Grolier American 100, 61. Usual scattered light foxing or embrowning. Expert restoration to spines and corners of original cloth, gilt bright. An extremely good copy in scarce original extra-gilt cloth gift binding.
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