British and American Eloquence (ASSOCIATION COPY SIGNED BY AUTHOR W/ SIGNED TLS FROM MICHIGAN GOVERNOR RICHARD YATES JR.); AN AMAZING UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ASSOCIATION!
Boston: Ginn and Company, 1912. First Edition, First Printing. Hardcover. 5 X 7 3/8 Inches. 403 PP. Very Good. Item #4946
Signed and inscribed to fellow University of Michigan Alumnus and President of the Michigan Press Association Junius Beal. Beal served as a State Legislator in the Michigan House of Representatives during the 1905-1906 term. The book is accompanied by a rather lengthy and very personal letter (TLS) to Beal from Illinois Governor Richard Yates Jr. (letter is affixed to front pastedown). The letter is dated December 17, 1912, just days after Yates Jr. lost his 1912 third run for Governor of Illinois. ALL THREE MEN WERE GRADUATES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN.
In part:
"After a long, uniform, continuous and contemporaneous delay, utterly inexcusable, so far as I am able to ascertain from the evidence in the case, I am returning to you today under separate cover, the book which I borrosed from you, just before the late unpleasant election..."
&
"A second statement is necessary; I not only have retained and detained this good book too long, but I have allowed myself to take an unwarranted and unwarrantable liberty with it; for I have defaced it, with pencil marks, in more than several places; just why I was so indelicate as to do this, I don't exactly know; the sudden illness of the Republican Party, which became visible to the nake eye on the late 5th of November, was followed with unpleasant promptness by a sudden illness of yours truly..."
The book itself bound in original blue cloth with black title stamping to cover and spine. A concise study of the great speeches and oratory talents of men such as Alexander Hamilton, Abraham Lincoln, John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster among others. A very impressive association copy that no doubt influeced two contemporary politicians from sister states. The pencil marks by Yates are faint and seem to end around page 100. Hint of toning to interior and light wear at hinges.
Price: $250.00