Historically significant first edition book: Political Debates between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas, In the Celebrated Campaign of 1858, in Illinois. First edition, first printing (with "2" at the bottom of page 17 as required). Columbus, OH: Follett, Foster and Company, 1860. Hardcover bound in publisher's original cloth, 6.5 x 9.5, 268 pages. The 'Correspondence' leaf features Lincoln's letter to the Republican State Central Committee of Ohio acceding to the publication of his speeches, and the leaf preceding the first numbered page is blank and genuine. Book condition: VG-/None, with an ink notation and small tear at the bottom of the title page, a few pencil ownership inscriptions, rubbed boards cracked at joints and somewhat loose, and minor foxing to textblock; the binding is tight and pages generally clean.
This is the first published edition of the famed debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, which launched Lincoln into national prominence. Published as a presidential campaign tool in April 1860, these collected speeches became a bestseller, and by the time of Lincoln’s official nomination, some 30,000 copies were in circulation. Douglas complained of the publication that 'Mr. Lincoln's speeches have been refined, corrected, and improved…while mine have been mutilated and in some instances the meaning changed.' A scarce and sought-after example of an important work in American political history.
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