Rare book set: Sketches of the Life and Correspondence of Nathanael Greene, Major General of the Armies of the United States, in the War of the Revolution, Vols. I and II, by William Johnson. Charleston, SC: printed for the author by A. E. Miller, 1822. Hardcover bound in full brown calf with gilt-stamped spine title labels, 9 x 11.25, 991 pages. The first volume has a large portrait of Green as its frontispiece, and the second volume boasts a large, hand-colored fold-out map of "The Seat of War of the Revolution in the Southern States"; several additional single-page map plates illustrate the work. Book condition: G+/None, with moderate-to-heavy foxing and staining throughout, cracked hinges, large chips to spine heads, and the bookplate of Joel Davis Madden, Jr., affixed inside each volume.
William Johnson was an associate justice of the US Supreme Court, having been appointed by President Thomas Jefferson in 1804. His father, William Johnson, Sr., had been a leading revolutionary in Charleston during the war for independence. This biography of Greene was the first to be written and utilized Greene's personal papers. Although it was a financial and critical failure at the time of its release, the work earned renewed interest in the 20th century. In 1964, the historian Craig Newton identified Johnson's volumes as a part of the historiography of South Carolina and stated that Johnson 'spoke not only for the more competent biographers and historians but also for all others diligent in the preservation of the sources of the Revolution.'
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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