Uncle Tom’s Cabin

By Harriet Beecher Stowe

1852 First English Cruikshank Illustrated Edition (with 27 George Cruikshank Illustrations)

Rivière & Son Full Leather Binding in Slipcase

Stated “Eugene Field’s Copy” (see below)

London: John Cassell, Ludgate Hill, 1852. 8vo., 391 pp. with 27 George Cruikshank illustrations. This edition of this classic abolitionist novel was published the same year as the Boston first edition (1852). (Sources conflict as to the priority of the earliest English editions; although this 1852 Cassell edition sometimes is sold as the first English edition, it also sometimes is sold as the second English edition.) In any event, this is the first English edition illustrated by the celebrated artist George Cruikshank and it was published in the same year as the American first edition.

This book is elegantly bound by Rivière & Son in full polished tan calf, all edges gilt, with triple gilt ruled boards as well as board edges and dentelles tooled in gilt. The five-hubbed spine has gilt lettering and tooling as well as two Morocco labels. The endpapers are marbled.

The book is housed in an elegant custom slipcase (the spine of which states “Eugene Field’s Copy”, in addition to the book’s title and author’s last name). The slipcase is quarter-bound in brown Levant and has sides covered in a finely patterned tan fabric (likely silk). The slipcase’s spine has five hubs and is lettered and detailed in gilt. The slipcase is in very good condition but for some scuffs, several small spots, slight soiling, light edgewear, and darkening to the topedge. Please see photographs.

The book itself is in very good or better condition, having been well protected by the slipcase. Although it has some slight foxing and light toning in places, it is well preserved and its binding and hinges are strong. It has light edgewear and a few superficial scratches, scuffs, and spots. Please see photos.

In addition, the book has three bookplates. The first, on the front paste-down, reads “Eugene Field” below a coat of arms. The second and third are on the front free endpaper, and read “Stibolt” and “Ex Libris” below a coat of arms, and “Thomas Bodley Stibolt,” respectively. Please see photos.

The bottom left corner of the verso of the front free endpaper bears the stamp “Bound by Riviere and Son.” My understanding is that this stamp dates the binding as post-1880. Rivière bindings are known to be among the finest in the world.

Now for the especially interesting part. As noted, the book bears a bookplate of Eugene Field and its slipcase states that it was Eugene Field’s copy. Along these lines, the verso of one of the rear free endpapers bears the following handwritten inscription:

“This book came from the library of my father, Eugene Field.

[signed] Eugene Field lI

Sept. 10, 1923.”

Eugene Field (Sr.) was a beloved poet and children’s author who lived from 1850 to 1895. He was famous for his book Poems of Childhood and especially such poems as “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod” and “Little Boy Blue.” In addition, he was a bibliophile and a major figure in Chicago literary and book collecting circles. He was the son of a prominent lawyer named Roswell Martin Field (1807-1869), well remembered for his representation of Dred Scott, an enslaved man who sued for his freedom. Roswell Martin Field began representing Dred Scott free of charge in 1853 and filed the complaint in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case in St. Louis federal court (sometimes referred to as “the lawsuit that started the Civil War”). This case progressed to the United States Supreme Court, which ultimately ruled that Dred Scott was not a U.S. citizen that and the Court had no jurisdiction to adjudicate his lawsuit for his freedom. The ruling, uniformly regarded as the Court’s worst of all time, hastened the nation’s slide toward civil war. It was not until the Civil War Amendments to the Constitution that the Dred Scott decision was nullified.

Eugene Field II, the grandson of Roswell Martin Field and son of Eugene Field (Sr.), reportedly sold off his father’s prized library at some point after his father passed in 1895. In the 1920s or early 1930s, Eugene Field II reportedly met up with a notorious forger, Henry Drayton Sickles, and the two purportedly came up with a plan to “increase” Field’s late father’s library by reproducing his father’s bookplate and affixing it to books they purchased (which were not in fact part of his father’s library) and selling them. In addition to adding bookplates to these books, they reportedly added forged signatures of Eugene Field (Sr.) and forged signatures of the books’ authors themselves. (This book, in any event, bears no such signatures.)

So, whether this landmark abolitionist classic book really came from the library of Eugene Field (Sr.) is uncertain. But in any event, it belonged to a direct descendant (either one or two generations removed) of the lawyer Roswell Martin Field who represented Dred Scott himself in his suit for freedom — that is, it belonged either to that lawyer’s son, Eugene Field (Sr.) or to his grandson, Eugene Field II — which is in itself an amazing association. Indeed, this association is especially significant for this book, given that Uncle Tom’s Cabin was so influential in swaying public belief in favor of abolition and against slavery.

This unique and unusually handsome collectible book will be shipped bubble wrapped and boxed, with signature required.