The Hogan copy of the first edition, first issue of Uncle Tom’s Cabin

STOWE, HARRIET BEECHER

Uncle Tom's Cabin, or Life Among the Lowly. Boston: John P. Jewett & Co., and Cleveland: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, 1852. First edition in book form, first issue. Original pale purple cloth, upper covers with gilt-blocked vignette replicating the wood-engraved vignette on the title pages, repeated in blind on back covers; brown morocco pull-off case. 7 5/8 x 4 5/8 inches (19.25 x 11.75 cm); x, [13]-312 pp; iv, [5]-322 pp. Backstrips faded, some small pale marks on covers, minute wear, internally some extremely unobtrusive stains, two or three gatherings partly sprung, but a very clean copy overall. Morocco bookplate of Frank J. Hogan, former president of the ABA, a distinguished book collector who started collecting at the prompting of his client, Estelle Doheny. Hogan’s collection was especially strong in the area of 19th-century American literature. Title-page pencil owner signatures of Clara Wilder, probably the New York book collector. Owner’s laid-in note describing the book’s history.

Published on 20 March 1852, the first printing of this work was 5000 copies, which was swiftly exhausted, and a new printing was called for by the end of the month. The first printing was issued simultaneously in cloth and in wrappers (the latter BAL's "A" binding). The present copy is in BAL's "B" binding (N.B. there is no priority between the bindings). The first issue is delineated by a variety of textual points, all of which are present. PMM 332:. "Into the emotion-charged atmosphere of mid-nineteenth-century America Uncle Tom's Cabin exploded like a bombshell. To those engaged in fighting slavery it appeared as an indictment of all the evils inherent in the system they opposed; to the pro-slavery forces it was a slanderous attack on 'the Southern way of life'...The social impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin...was greater than that of any book before or since." Heavily read at the time and later, it is a difficult book to find in true collector's condition. It remains a record best-seller in proportion to population, for in one year 305,000 copies were sold, while the total U.S. population at the time was 23 million. BAL 19343; Grolier American 61; Grolier English 183.
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