Autograph Leaves of Our Country's Authors by BLISS, A.; Kennedy, John P - 1864

Baltimore: Cushings and Bailey , 1864. Bound in one quarter red leather over decorative boards. Autograph leaves of our Country's Authors, pp. xi, 200 pages of facsimile, including the first printing of the definitive edition of the Gettysburg Address, final leaf with lithograph vignette, not called for in WorldCat collation, Alexander Bliss (1827-1896) was an assistant quartermaster in the Union Army during the Civil War (his step-father was the eminent historian George Bancroft). Bliss and John P. Kennedy wanted to raise money to benefit the Baltimore Sanitary Fair, an organization which aided wounded soldiers and their families, so they came up with the idea for this book. They solicited manuscripts from major American authors (or their heirs) and made lithographic copies which are contained in this title (ninety-two in all). Most importantly, Bliss' step-father had asked President Lincoln for a manuscript copy of the Gettysburg Address, which Lincoln wrote out and sent to him. The form of this manuscript was not what Bliss and Kennedy wanted, and they wrote to Lincoln again, explaining their dilemma and asked him to re-write it. Lincoln did so, and sent it to them; this copy, now known as the "Bliss Copy," is the first publication of the Gettysburg Address in Lincoln's hand, and is one of only five manuscript copies of the Gettysburg Address (it now resides in the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House). Other authors represented include: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, Francis Scott Key, Washington Irving, John Audubon, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Harriet Beecher Stowe.. First Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good +/No Jacket. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall.