NORTH AMERICA. [In Two Volumes.]

1862. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co., 1862. Original blind-stamped brown pebbled cloth.

First Authorized American Edition, believed to have followed Harper's pirated edition by a mere four days. This work is not only a geographical description of North America; Trollope also gets into such questions as "Deficiencies in the Post Office System," "Amount of the Debt - Can the Burden be Borne?" and "Rights of Women" -- topics no less timely now. Given the year, Trollope also discusses the Civil War then raging. Trollope's wife Rose accompanied him on most of this trip, acting as his amanuensis; it is said that the book's spontaneity declines at the point she left for London -- reflecting how much harder it was for him to write out his thoughts rather than to dictate them freely. The preliminary "Author's Edition" note (added to the two-in-one copies) indicates that this edition was "published by special arrangement with the Author, at whose urgent request it was undertaken, and to whom we pay regular copyright" -- a thinly-veiled swipe at Harper's piracy. Harper had far greater distribution resources, and as a result this Lippincott edition sold poorly, and is considerably scarcer today. Though initially issued in two volumes, as here, "within a few days, the remaining sheets were bound into one volume to reduce the price necessitated by Harper's cheaper [60¢ vs $1.50] edition" [Smith] -- thus this edition is usually found two-volumes-in-one. This is a near-fine set (a little wear at the foot of the spines, but otherwise very nice). W. Smith pp 43-44; see Sadleir (TROLLOPE) 14 (note; also p. 3 of the addenda).