PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY: A BOOK OF THOUGHTS AND ARGUMENTS Signed by Samuel Morse to his cousin a week before he married her
New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1847. First Edition. Hardcover. Two parts bound in one small octavo volume (5" x 7-3/8") in full black morocco leather; all edges gilt. INSCRIBED and SIGNED on the front flyleaf: "Miss Sarah Elizabeth Griswold/from her affectionate Cousin/Sam. F. B. Morse/August 1st 1848." Morse married his first wife, Lucretia Walker, on 29 September 1819 in New Hampshire; she died in 1825 after the birth of their third child. Morse married his second cousin, the deaf Sarah Elizabeth Griswold, twenty-six years his junior, on 10 August 1848, or just nine days after inscribing this book. In addition to being an accomplished artist, Morse conceived of the telegraph in 1832 and developed a working model by 1837, though interest was not great in it. In May 1844, Morse sent his famous "What hath God wrought?" message from Washington to Baltimore. In addition Morse published the first American description of the daguerreotype in 1839 and became one of the first Americans to make daguerreotypes in the United States. Light, scattered foxing; extremities rubbed. Very Good or better. Item #014370
Price: $3,500.00