“FIRST IN WAR, FIRST IN PEACE, AND FIRST IN THE HEARTS OF HIS COUNTRYMEN”: FIRST EDITIONS OF FREEMAN’S COMPLETE GEORGE WASHINGTON
FREEMAN, Douglas Southall. George Washington. WITH: CARROLL, J.A. and ASHWORTH, M.W. George Washington. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948-54, (1957). Seven volumes. Octavo, original blue cloth, cartographic endpapers, original slipcases (Vols. I-VI), original dust jacket (Vol. 7).
First editions of the complete and definitive seven-volume biography of Washington, with the scarce final volume finished by Carroll and Ashworth after Douglas Freeman’s death. With frontispieces, 96 illustrations and over 50 maps.
Winner of the 1958 Pulitzer Prize, this is the acclaimed study of George Washington’s life by the writer considered “America’s greatest biographer” by fellow historians such as Allan Nevins. “Douglas Southall Freeman can well claim to be the most influential pioneer of the scholarly biography that has become such an important part of today’s literary world” (Mullen, Contemporary Review). As a writer and editor known for “his ability to write rapidly and clearly… Freeman had wide influence on political and military affairs… Political and military leaders read his books as primers on leadership” (ANB). This comprehensive seven-volume history, completed by J.A. Carroll and M.W. Ashworth after Freeman’s death, records the life of America’s first President—the man, as Henry Lee said in his eulogy, who would be forever “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” Volumes I-VI as issued in slipcases and without dust jackets; Volume VII as issued in dust jacket and without a slipcase.
A fine set in lightly worn slipcases.