Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee.

LEE, Captain Robert E. [John L. Campbell; Gerald Smythe].

Item Number: 110342

New York : Doubleday, Page & Company, 1904.

First edition of this work “the closest thing to an autobiography that Gen. Lee ever wrote” (Nevins I, 120). Octavo, original cloth, with photogravure portraits. A Presentation copy with an interesting triad of associations. The books is inscribed by Captain Robert E. Lee, General Lee’s son and author of the book, to John L. Campbell, the Treasurer of Washington and Lee University for 35 years, with a lengthy quote by Englishman Gerald Smythe on the half-title, taken from a letter by General Lee to Bishop Randolph about the importance of history. The inscription from Capt. Rob Lee to John Campbell is dated October 13, 1904, the year of the book’s publication. The inscription penned by Gerald Smythe is dated 13 June 1909, during Smythe’s “sojourn in Lexington” with Rob Lee in May and June 1909 [Confederate Veteran, January, 1921]. Captain Lee referred to Smythe as “the best Confederate I know” and Smythe later penned “An Englishman’s Visit to Capt. R. E. Lee” about his pleasant visit, issued of the Confederate Veteran, June 1915. All in all, a remarkable copy with significant associations, of this important work.