Scarce and sought-after first edition book set: The Life of George Washington, Commander in Chief of the American Forces, During the War which Established the Independence of His Country, and First President of the United States, Vols. I-V plus map supplement, compiled under the inspection of Bushrod Washington and written by Chief Justice John Marshall. First edition. Philadelphia: C. P. Wayne, 1804-1807. Hardcovers bound in three-quarter brown morocco leather with marbled boards, 6.25 x 9.5 (five-volume biography) and 9 x 11 (atlas with subscribers' list), totaling 3252 pages plus ten engraved map plates depicting Washington’s major Revolutionary War campaigns. Book condition: VG/None, with some dampstaining and foxing to textblocks, bumped corners to Vol. I, offsetting to title page of Vol. I from frontispiece, a few minor ink annotations within, and the bookplate of Joel Davis Madden, Jr., affixed inside each volume.
After his appointment to the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Marshall began working on a biography of George Washington. He did so at the request of his close friend, Associate Justice Bushrod Washington, who had inherited the papers of his uncle. Marshall's The Life of George Washington, the first biography about a U.S. president ever published, has been praised by historians for its accuracy and well-reasoned judgments. According to Robert K. Faulkner, the work 'is political history as well as biography…the only comprehensive account by a great statesman of the full founding of the United States—of the founding of an independent people as well as of its government…There is no other concentrated history of the essentials by such an authority on American institutions.' A handsome example of this historic five-volume biography, enhanced by the inclusion of its accompanying atlas with scarce subscribers' list.
Joel Davis Madden, Jr., left Princeton University in 1905 and moved west to make his fortune in the railroad industry. He went on to become an executive with the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and died suddenly in 1928 at the age of 41. His book collection, offered by his granddaughter, has not been publicly offered or privately sold in a century.
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