"THE WORLD KNEW GRANT AS THE MAN WHO WON THE CIVIL WAR": FIRST EDITION OF AROUND THE WORLD WITH GENERAL GRANT, 1879, WITH FRONTISPIECE OF GRANT AND FOLDING MAP

(GRANT, U. S.) YOUNG, John Russell. Around the World with General Grant. New York: American News, 1879. Two volumes. Tall quarto, contemporary full brown morocco gilt, raised bands, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. $2200.

First edition of Grant's global tour, a splendid two-volume work profusely illustrated with 800 engravings (42 full-page), including frontispiece portrait of Grant and large folding map outlined in color, in handsome full morocco-gilt.

A one-time editor of the New York Herald, John Young was invited by Grant to accompany him on his world tour, where thousands "knew the American Civil War as the war to free slaves and the world knew Ulysses S. Grant as the man who won the Civil War. The London Times noted that 'after Washington, General Grant is the president who will occupy the largest place in the history of the United States… The Grants dined with Queen Victoria…. [and] in Japan Grant was the first person to have the privilege to shake the hand of the Emperor, who was considered a god…. Grant and his wife saw the canals of Venice, the Ganges River of India, the pyramids of Egypt, and the Gates of Jerusalem" (Havelin, Ulysses S. Grant, 96). This richly illustrated two-volume work documents that momentous world tour, after which Grant, who had become good friends with Young, persuaded President Arthur to appoint Young minister to China in 1882. Volume I with steel-engraved frontispiece portrait; Volume II with folding map.

Interior fine, rubbing to front board of second volume. A handsome copy.