Spain and the Spaniards.

AMICIS, Edmondo de; Translated by Stanley Rhoads Yarnall [William Tecumseh Sherman].

$1,250.00

Item Number: 145934

Philadelphia: Henry T. Coates & Co, 1895.

Early American edition of this exceptional piece of travel writing translated from the original Italian; from the library of Philemon Tecumseh Sherman. Octavo, two volumes, publisher’s decorated boards, top edge gilt, original silk ribbons, frontispiece of The Immaculate Conception, by Murillo to Vol. I and the Fountain in the Court of Lions, Albambra to Vol. II, heavily illustrated with black and white photographs and a fold-out map of Spain and Portugal in the second volume. P.T. Sherman’s bookplate to the front free endpaper of both volumes. In near fine condition with light rubbing to the extremities, crown and foot of the spine of both volumes. General William Tecumseh Sherman’s son P.T. Sherman was a lawyer in New York, specializing in labor and insurance, and was elected a member of the New York Board of Alderman in the late 1880s. In the early 1900s, he was appointed the New York Commissioner of Labor. He transferred his library to his niece, Eleanor Sherman Fitch, the granddaughter of General Sherman through his eldest daughter, Maria “Minnie” Ewing Sherman Fitch, before he died. Until now, this set was held at the family estate in Washington County, Pennsylvania.

Edmondo De Amicis was an Italian novelist, journalist, poet, and short-story writer best known for his children's novel 'Cuore' ['Heart']. De Amicis wrote his first sketches dealing with his frontline experience in the Third Independence War, which were collected as 'La vita militare' ['Military Life'] and first published by the journal of the 'Ministry of Defense.' After joining the staff of the journal 'La Nazione' in Rome, he used his correspondences as the basis for several travel writings. The nationalist message visible in De Amicis' works was soon fused with a commitment to socialism (a trend visible within his immensely popular 'Heart,' which was printed in 40 Italian editions and translated into dozens of languages and criticized by Roman Catholic politicians for failing to depict the nature of the Holy See's opposition to the annexation of Rome).