Lot Details
Lot 2
[HAMILTON, ALEXANDER] CALLENDER, JAMES T. The American Annual Register, or, Historical Memoirs of the United States, for the year year 1796.
Philadelphia: printed and sold by Bioren & Madan, no. 77, Dock-Street, January 19th, 1797. First edition. Marbled boards of the period, rebacked and recornered in modern calf. 8 3/4 x 5 1/4 inches (22 x 14 cm); vii, [1], 288 pp. Covers rubbed, rebacked as noted, with losses to the marbled paper; an uncut copy, paper toned and with (fairly minor) sporadic foxing. Bookplate of the Presbyterian Historical Society Library; book label of William Safire.
James Thomson Callender was a scandalmongering journalist and political writer, who is perhaps best known for his 1802 series of newspaper articles stating that Thomas Jefferson had children with Sally Hemings. In the present work, he reported (in chapters 5 and 6) on Hamilton's supposed financial dishonesty, a claim that was repeated the same year in Callender's History of the United States for 1796, the publication of which was underwritten by Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton's political enemy. Ultimately, Callender's calumnies forced Hamilton to issue a printed refutation, in the so-called "Reynolds Pamphlet," which also addressed his liaison with Marie Reynolds, a married woman. The present work also contains a great wealth of political and diplomatic news of the period. Callender drowned in 1803 in the James River, apparently in a drunken stupor. Howes C 69; Evans 31905; ESTC W37185; Sabin, 10062.
C From the Collection of the late William Safire
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