A SAMMELBAND OF 32 PAMPHLETS, all PHI BETA KAPPA Addresses, including Emerson's AN ORATION, DELIVERED BEFORE THE PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY, AT CAMBRIDGE, AUGUST 31, 1837 and Story's A DISCOURSE PRONOUNCED BEFORE THE PHI BETA KAPPA SOCIETY, INSCRIBED by Story
1822 - 1849. First Edition. Hardcover. Two 5-1/4" x 8-1/2" volumes identically bound in half calf and marbled boards with matching gilt-lettered morocco spine labels. All the pamphlets are complete except for the original wrappers which were not bound in. Both volumes with Edward Everett's bookplate on the front pastedown along with a presentation bookplate of Frederick W. Putnam to Hamilton College, both stamped "Withdrawn." In addition to Emerson and Story, other contributors include James Kent, Charles Sumner, Alexander Everett, Theopholis Parson, James Percifal, William J. Spooner, Denison Olmstead, Thomas S. Grimke, Benjamin Toslin, Theron Metcalf, Asher Robbins, Seth Hawley, Virgil Maxcy, and Asher Ware. Story's DISCOURSE (SABIN 92300) is INSCRIBED "The Honorable/Edward Everett/from the Author" on the title and has a partial correction in the author's hand on page 26. In addition to Story's INSCRIPTION to Everett, Maxcy and Ware have also INSCRIBED their addresses to Everett. Emerson's address is certainly the most important present in these volumes. Published in an edition of only 500 copies, all of which were sold within a month’s time, it was generally well received and was later described by Oliver Wendell Holmes as "our intellectual Declaration of Independence." When Emerson included this essay in his seminal collection in 1841, he renamed it "The American Scholar": "The clarion cry, to think, to create, to become a productive scholar, and above all to fulfil yourself as an individualist." BAL 5183; GROLIER AMERICAN 100: 43. Each volume also with the owner inscription of Frederick W. Putnam dated 22 November 1910, Binghamton, NY. Putnam, a student of Louis Agassiz, was the first director of the Peabody Museum of Salem, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, president of the American Folklore Society, and president of the American Anthropological Association, among other honors. He is widely known as the "Father of American Archaeology." A remarkable collection with an exceptional provenance and association. Occasional foxing or staining; "withdrawn" stamps on front and rear pastedowns where there are minor remnants of a pocket. Paper library labels on the spines, rubbing to joints, slight edgewear. Overall Near Fine. Item #020452
Edward Everett--a Unitarian minister, member of both the United States Congress and Senate, and also a governor of Massachusetts--is perhaps best known for his oratory powers. It is he who gave the "other" address at Gettysburg on 19 November 1863. The next day he wrote Lincoln saying, "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes."
Price: $7,500.00