Printed and Manuscript Americana

New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1880. First edition, earliest issue (with signature mark F present and front paste-down dated March 31, 1880). 12mo. (ii), 374, (2), (8, ads) pp. Publisher's white linen-covered boards, printed in black, soiled and toned, scattered foxing, light wear at spine ends; all edges trimmed; printed ad endpapers; loss at bottom corner of front free endpaper, rear free endpaper perished; wear along rear hinge; in quarter brown morocco solander box. BAL 11A

A handsome copy of this increasingly rare first edition, earliest issue, of this novel satirizing the political class in Washington, D.C. following the Civil War. Published anonymously in 1880, it was not until after Henry Adams's death in 1918 that his publisher disclosed the author's identity. It has since become a classic interrogation on American power politics and the nature of democracy.