![LINCOLN, Abraham and EVERETT, Edward. The Gettysburg Solemnities: Dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863. With the oration of Hon. Edward Everett, Speech of President Lincoln. Washington, D.C.: The Washington Chronicle Office, [22 November 1863].](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2005/NYR/2005_NYR_01685_0099_000(110641).jpg?w=1)
Details
LINCOLN, Abraham and EVERETT, Edward. The Gettysburg Solemnities: Dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, November 19, 1863. With the oration of Hon. Edward Everett, Speech of President Lincoln. Washington, D.C.: The Washington Chronicle Office, [22 November 1863].
16pp., 8vo (10¾ x 7½ in. approximately). Printed in two columns. Self wrappers, folded sheets, unsewn, as issued. (Light dampstains throughout, marginal fraying, neatly mended). Dark green morocco folding case.
"...OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, AND FOR THE PEOPLE": THE FIRST EDITION OF LINCOLN'S MOST CELEBRATED UTTERANCE: THE STREETER COPY, ONE OF THREE KNOWN COPIES, THE LAST IN PRIVATE HANDS
One of the greatest of all Lincoln rarities, constituting the earliest separate printing of Lincoln's address, preceded only by newspaper printings. "The Washington Chronicle of 18-21 November reported extensively on this ceremony and included a verbatim text of 'Edward Everett's Great Oration'...On the fourth day it noted in passing that the President had also made a speech, but gave no details. When it came to the separate publication on 22 November, Everett's 'Oration' was reprinted from the standing type, but Lincoln's speech had still to be set up. It was tucked away as the final paragraph..." (Printing and the Mind of Man, 351).
Paul Angle first described the fragile pamphlet, which he discovered in the Henry Horner Collection at the Illinois State Library in 1939. Angle established conclusively that the pamphlet printing was issued by the newspaper on 22 November 1863, when the full text of Lincoln's brief but immortal address was obtained. Unfortunately, the text, possibly taken in shorthand on the spot, is flawed in a number of places and entirely omits the sentence "It is altogether fiting and proper that we should do this." The journalist reporting from Gettysburg, though, inserted "[applause]" in five separate places, usefully indicating which parts of the speech had most appealed to Lincoln's original audience.
"Everett's speech, every word of which is now forgotten, lasted two hours. Lincoln's address...comprised ten sentences and took only a few minutes to deliver. From the first words--'Four score and seven years ago'--to the last--'that government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth'--it is immortal, one of the supreme utterances of the principles of democratic Freedom" (PMM). Monaghan 192; Paul M. Angle, "Four Lincoln Firsts," in Papers of the Bibliographical Society, vol.36, Spring 1942, pp.13-17.
Only three copies are recorded: one in the Illinois State Library, one in the Library of the Supreme Council Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Washington, D.C., and the present. Provenance: Thomas W. Streeter, bookplate on penultimate page (sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 25 October 1967, lot 1748) -- Anonymous owner (sale, Sotheby's 27 March 1985, lot 76, $12,000).
16pp., 8vo (10¾ x 7½ in. approximately). Printed in two columns. Self wrappers, folded sheets, unsewn, as issued. (Light dampstains throughout, marginal fraying, neatly mended). Dark green morocco folding case.
"...OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, AND FOR THE PEOPLE": THE FIRST EDITION OF LINCOLN'S MOST CELEBRATED UTTERANCE: THE STREETER COPY, ONE OF THREE KNOWN COPIES, THE LAST IN PRIVATE HANDS
One of the greatest of all Lincoln rarities, constituting the earliest separate printing of Lincoln's address, preceded only by newspaper printings. "The Washington Chronicle of 18-21 November reported extensively on this ceremony and included a verbatim text of 'Edward Everett's Great Oration'...On the fourth day it noted in passing that the President had also made a speech, but gave no details. When it came to the separate publication on 22 November, Everett's 'Oration' was reprinted from the standing type, but Lincoln's speech had still to be set up. It was tucked away as the final paragraph..." (Printing and the Mind of Man, 351).
Paul Angle first described the fragile pamphlet, which he discovered in the Henry Horner Collection at the Illinois State Library in 1939. Angle established conclusively that the pamphlet printing was issued by the newspaper on 22 November 1863, when the full text of Lincoln's brief but immortal address was obtained. Unfortunately, the text, possibly taken in shorthand on the spot, is flawed in a number of places and entirely omits the sentence "It is altogether fiting and proper that we should do this." The journalist reporting from Gettysburg, though, inserted "[applause]" in five separate places, usefully indicating which parts of the speech had most appealed to Lincoln's original audience.
"Everett's speech, every word of which is now forgotten, lasted two hours. Lincoln's address...comprised ten sentences and took only a few minutes to deliver. From the first words--'Four score and seven years ago'--to the last--'that government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth'--it is immortal, one of the supreme utterances of the principles of democratic Freedom" (PMM). Monaghan 192; Paul M. Angle, "Four Lincoln Firsts," in Papers of the Bibliographical Society, vol.36, Spring 1942, pp.13-17.
Only three copies are recorded: one in the Illinois State Library, one in the Library of the Supreme Council Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, Washington, D.C., and the present. Provenance: Thomas W. Streeter, bookplate on penultimate page (sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, 25 October 1967, lot 1748) -- Anonymous owner (sale, Sotheby's 27 March 1985, lot 76, $12,000).