Description

Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches: with Elucidations By Thomas Carlyle COMPLETE IN TWO VOLUMES 1 845 First Edition Wiley and Putnam New York Half-bound Leather 560 + 437 pp plus 2 pp publisher's listings Although Carlyle was interested in writing a biography of Cromwell as early as 1839, he decided by October 1843 that "'A book on Cromwell is impossible! Literally so' (Collected Letters, 17.164). But he needed to try. The compulsion hardly seemed rational; his stubbornness, though, was intensified by his awareness that he could never write the book which he had originally planned. Through November and part of December 1843 he either faced a blank sheet or wrote unsatisfactory sentences. Shortly after the middle of December he gathered together everything he had written about Cromwell and committed it 'at one fell swoop to the fire'… Since he could not do as a biography what he believed he had to do in some form, he decided to produce an edition of Cromwell's speeches and letters. The puritan leader's words would speak for themselves. With much anxiety and complaint, Carlyle devoted the next three years to this edition." First published in 1845. This 1845 First Edition is rather spartan; no frontispieces or illustrations, no fancy binding or endpapers, but first editions of this work are rather rare. This venerable 180 year-old set has some binding and cosmetic issues. Tiltle are gone from the worn and chipped away spine covers. The front board of Volume 1 is held on only by binding strings and the front board of Volume 2 is separated. (Rear boards are better.) Other signs of cover wear as well. Previous owner stamps on first blank endpaper and tile pages of each volume, Textblocks are good and stable. Interiors are Good to Very Good. Each volume approximately 5" x 7 1/2" x 1 3/4"