( Merritt, Abraham ) Moskowitz, SamBiblio.com
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN
1910ST17022London: Privately printed by the Chiswick Press for Beatrice Lowry and Her Friends Minneapolis 1910. ONE OF 100 COPIES according to Howes. 215 x 147 mm. 8 1/2 x 5 7/8". 31 1 pp. 1 leaf colophon. With a foreword by Mrs. Lowry. <br/> PLEASING EMERALD GREEN CRUSHED MOROCCO GILT IN AN ARTS & CRAFTS STYLE BY SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE stamp-signed on rear turn-in upper cover framed by multiple rules entwined heart and trefoil tooling at corners gilt lettering accented with floral tool above and below the central panel which has three dots at each corner raised bands spine in gilt-ruled compartments gilt titling gilt-ruled turn-ins pale green endpapers top edge gilt. In contemporary green cloth drop-front box lined with felt. With a frontispiece portrait of Lowry. Howes L-541. Trivial offsetting to free endleaves from turn-ins a couple of tiny spots of foxing otherwise in nearly pristine condition with no signs of use inside or out.<br/> <br/> This is an exceptionally well-preserved copy of a work that was specially compiled printed and bound to honor the memory of both the author and the subject. Prominent Minneapolis attorney businessman and philanthropist Thomas Lowry 1843-1909 grew up in Illinois and Lincoln had assisted his father with several legal matters when he was practicing law. Young Lowry attended all of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and became a devoted admirer of the man who would go on to preserve the Union. After a successful career that included establishing the street car system in Minneapolis Lowry contracted tuberculosis and spent the last four years of his life as an invalid. With excess time on his hands he began writing down his memories of Lincoln in a "fragmentary manner" as Mrs. Lowry explains in the preface. After her husband's death Beatrice Goodrich Lowry 1854-1915 compiled these memories and some Lincoln letters in her husband's effects into the present volume which she had printed and bound to distribute to her husband's friends. Edmund Brooks a Minneapolis bookseller who specialized in fine bindings helped her to arrange for printing by the esteemed Chiswick Press and binding by the one of the most eminent English workshops of the day Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Francis Sangorski and George Sutcliffe met as boys attending Douglas Cockerell's bookbinding classes at the L. C. C. Central School. Cockerell was so impressed by their skill that he hired Sutcliffe as a finisher and Sangorski as a forwarder. In 1901 Francis and George went into business for themselves and before long they had become two of the most renowned English binders of the 20th century. Preserved over the years in its clamshell box our binding looks virtually the same as it did the day it left the bindery. Copies of this work do appear on the market but their condition is seldom as good as seen here. Privately printed [by the Chiswick Press] for Beatrice Lowry and Her Friends, Minneapolis unknown
