ONE OF THE GREAT LANDMARKS IN AMERICAN LAW

HOLMES Jr., Oliver Wendell. The Common Law. Boston: Little, Brown, 1881. Octavo, original russet cloth. $4000.

First edition of Holmes' first work, called by Felix Frankfurter "the single most original contribution thus far to legal scholarship," in original cloth.

"To the legal historian, Justice Holmes was to be the leading prophet of the new era. Holmes was part of the generation that had sat at the feet of Darwin and Spencer… When Holmes asserted in his Common Law that 'the law finds its philosophy (in) the nature of human needs,' he was sounding the clarion of 20th-century jurisprudence… If the 19th century was one of Legal Darwinism, the 20th was, ultimately, to be that of Mr. Justice Holmes" (Law in America, 190-91). This copy presumed first issue, with "University Press:/John Wilson and Son, Cambridge" on the verso of the title page and on page 422; without dust jacket, as issued. Harvard Law Catalogue I: 945. Grolier American 100:84. Owner signature, small bookseller ticket.

Front inner hinge expertly reinforced at title page, only mild wear to original cloth. A near-fine copy.