Lot Details
Lot 53
FRANKLIN, BENJAMIN Memoires de la vie privée... écrits par lui-même, et adressés à son fils.
Paris: Chez Buisson, 1791. First edition. Contemporary spotted calf, gilt decorated smooth spine, gilt lettered dark green leather spine label, all edges stained yellow and speckled. 7 1/2 x 4 3/4 inches (19 x 12 cm); [2], vi, [1]-156, [1]-203, 360-363 pp. Some rubbing and wear to calf mostly along the spine, front hinges cracked but sound, offsetting to endpapers and title from binder's glue, contents with intermittent toning and spotting, the occasional old ink splotch in the margins, front endpaper loosening and with losses along gutter, evidence of a removed bookplate or label on the front pastedown.
The first edition of the first part of Benjamin Franklin's wonderful and important autobiography - "The most widely read of all American autobiographies, the gift to adolescents of countless parents... this book holds the essence of the American way of life. The history of its writing and publication is long and complicated... In some way Buisson, the French publisher, got hold of a draft of the part written at Twyford and his publication of a French translation in 1791 makes the first appearance in print of the Autobiography." Grolier/American 21; Howes F323; Sabin 25549; Struggle for North America 91
C Private Collection of Barbara and Ira Lipman
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