[SLAVERY & ABOLITION] PHILLIPS, Wendell

A Memorial of Wendell Phillips from the City of Boston

Boston: Printed by the Order of the City Council, 1884. First Edition. Small quarto (26.5cm); marbled paper over navy blue calf, spine in seven compartments, with six raised bands, leather labels, titling and decorative elements stamped in gilt on spine; marbled endpapers; engraved portrait frontispiece,[10],11-70, with an additional 31 leaves bound in. Armorial bookplate of Walter Merriam Pratt on front pastedown. Re-backed, with the original spine laid down; light wear to upper and lower board edges, with some touch-up to leather at crown and heel; Very Good. A grangerized copy, containing 22 ANS and ALS (ca.1-4pp), one autograph sentiment, a 4.25" x 6.5" cabinet card signed by Phillips, and several clipped portraits of various sizes, depicting Phillips, his wife, and his son in uniform. Most prominent among the letters are those written to G.W. Putnam (6), H.G. Denny (2), R.L. Winthrop (2), John Boyle O'Reilly (1), and an October 8, 1853 ALS to abolitionist and social reformer Gerrit Smith, in which he claims to have mislaid his letter, but is available to come to Brooklyn either on 15 December or 5 January (1854), and that his fee would be fifty dollars.

Handsome volume memorializing American abolitionist and orator Wendell Phillips (1811-1884), commissioned by the City of Boston in an edition of 5,000 copies. Nearly half the text is comprised of the euglogy by George William Curtis, and includes extensive remarks by city council members and aldermen, a prayer by Rev. Minot J. Savage, an address by the Mayor, and a poem by Mrs. Mary E. Blake. A proud son of Boston, Phillips abandoned a career in law after being converted to the cause of abolitionism by William Lloyd Garrison in 1836. He was a frequent speaker at meetings of the American Anti-Slavery Society, active in the free-produce movement, a member of the Boston Vigilance Committee, and an early advocate of women's rights. Later in life, he turned considerable effort towards gaining equal rights for Native Americans, and together with Helen Hunt Jackson and Massachusetts Governor William Claflin helped found the Massachusetts Indian Commission. cf.BAL 4347.

Price: $2,000.00

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