"BY AN OLD CITIZEN" [MORDECAI, Samuel]

Richmond in By-Gone Days; Being Reminiscences of An Old Citizen

Richmond: George M. West, 1856. First Edition. 12mo (17cm). Publisher's blind-embossed cloth, titled in gilt on spine and front cover; xii,[13]-321pp. Small loss to cloth at crown of spine; scattered internal foxing and an inconspicuous lean to the text block; still a tight, Very Good copy. Contemporary ownership inscription in pencil to front free endpaper (C.L. Gibson?) dated 1856.

Anecdotes and humorous sketches of antebellum life in Virginia's capital. Mordecai (1786-1865) was the scion of a prominent southern Jewish family with branches in Richmond and North Carolina; he made a minor fortune as a commission broker in the Caribbean trade and spent his final years indulging a fancy for writing. Richmond in By-Gone Days, published anonymously, was his first effort; a greatly expanded Second Edition appeared in 1860 under his own name. HOWES M785.

Price: $150.00

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