Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Or, Life Among the Lowly.

STOWE, Harriet Beecher.

Item Number: 96214

Boston and Cleveland: John P. Jewett and Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, 1852.

First edition, first issue of the author’s classic work. Octavo, original blind-stamped cloth with gilt titles to the spine and gilt vignettes to the front panels of each volume, title vignettes and six wood-engravings. First issue, with “spilt” (rather than “spiled”) in Volume I, 42, line 1; “cathecism” (rather than “catechism”) in Volume II, 74, line 5; and all other first issue points. In very good condition, recased. Housed in a custom slipcase. An excellent example.

“In the emotion-charged atmosphere of mid-19th century America Uncle Tom’s Cabin exploded like a bombshell. To those engaged in fighting slavery it appeared as an indictment of all the evils inherent in the system they opposed; to the pro-slavery forces it was a slanderous attack on ‘the Southern way of life’… the social impact of [the novel] on the United States was greater than that of any book before or since” (PMM 332). “Within a decade after its publication Uncle Tom’s Cabin had become the most popular novel ever written by an American… there is substantial evidence that the book precipitated the American Civil War” (Downs, Books That Changed America, 108).