The Grandissimes

New York, NY: Charles Scribner's Sons. Very Good. 1899. 1st Illustrated Edition; 1st Printing. Hardcover. B&W Illustrations; SIGNED EDITION. This copy has been signed, with an inscription, by the author on the second free page following the front endpaper. This is the First Illustrated Edition. This book is in Very Good condition and is lacking a dust jacket. This book is in generally clean, bright condition. The spine ends and corners of the book covers have some light bumping and wear. There is also a previous owner's bookplate on the front endpaper, and another owner's bookplate on the front pastedown page. The text pages are clean and bright. "In 1880, Cable published his first novel, The Grandissimes: A Story of Creole Life, portraying multiracial members and different classes of society in the early 1800s shortly after the Louisiana Purchase. It had first been serialized in Scribner's. The plot follows the adventures and romances of several members of the Grandissime family, a French Creole family with mixed-race members. He used this historical romance as a way to explore society and its racial injustice, as he addressed European Creoles, the mixed-race class, plaçage, slavery, and lynchings. In the same year, the United States Census Bureau commissioned Cable to write a "historical sketch" of pre-Civil War New Orleans for a special section of the 10th United States Census' "Social statistics of cities". He submitted a well-researched 313-page history, which was greatly reduced for publication in 1884. A complete edition was not published until 2008." (from Wikipedia) ; Signed by Author .