$25,200
Estimate: $3,000 - $5,000
Auction: May 20, 2021 1:00:00 PM EDT
An extraordinary and unique set, inscribed by General's Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1881. In three volumes. First edition. 8vo. (xviii), xiii, (iii), 683; x, (ii), 591; ix, (iii), 733 pp. Illustrated with an engraved portrait frontispiece of Grant in first volume; lacking all, but one, of the engraved maps and plates. Contemporary full brown morocco, as described in Badeau's letter below, stamped in blind and in gilt; top edges gilt, other edges trimmed; marbled endpapers; gift inscription from Work to his father, John C. Work, dated Christmas 1881, on first free leaf in first volume; all three volumes partially unopened; bookseller's ticket of Henry Miller, Bookseller & Binder 82 Nassau St. N.Y. on rear paste-down of each volume.
Includes three autograph letters from the Union Army’s most prominent generals, bound into first volume:
Autograph letter, signed by Ulysses S. Grant, to J.H. Work: “This book was/reviewed by me, chapter by/chapter, as it was being prepared/for the publishers. It was sub-/mitted for a similar review/also to Generals Porter & Babcock,/two of the staff colleagues of the/Author. In addition to this all/those chapters treating of events in/which Generals Sherman & Sheridan/held detached commands, were/submitted to those officers. The/Author had access to the Govern/ment and captured & purchased/rebel archives. He also read and/consulted all that was published, on/both sides, before and during the/time he was writing this book/with the view of getting this truth./So far as I am capable of/judging this is a true history of the/events of which it treats. The opinions/expressed of men are the Authors/own, and for which no one/is responsible./Yours truly,/U.S. Grant”, dated December 22, 1881.An extraordinary and unique set of Adam Badeau's three-volume military history of Ulysses S. Grant, with three autograph letters from the most prominent Union Army Generals: Ulysses S. Grant (1822-85), William Tecumseh Sherman (1820-91), and Philip H. Sheridan (1831-88), bound in. Grant wrote his own autobiography, published with the aid of his friend Mark Twain shortly after Grant's death in 1885. Badeau also worked with Grant during the early stages of his own memoir, Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant (New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1885-86), before leaving the project over a financial dispute.
In Badeau's Grant in Peace (1887, chapter 51, p. 588) he writes of this very set: "Mr. Work had a copy of my Military History of Grant especially bound for his library, and asked General Grant to write something in it to attest his opinion of its merits..." Badeau also used portions of Grant's above letter when promoting the 1885 reprint of this work by Appleton.
It is our understanding that Work was a lawyer who was a friend and colleague of Grant's.