Home / Browse / Literature & History / Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly.
STOWE, Harriet Beecher.
Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly.
First edition of probably the most socially influential American book ever published. "Even before the publication of the serial [in the abolitionist newspaper The National Era] the Boston publisher John P. Jewett had expressed an interest in publishing [it] in book form. The two volumes, issued both in brown cloth and paper wrappers, appeared on 20 March 1852, two instalments before the conclusion of the serial in The National Era. The first printing of five thousand copies was exhausted in a few days and a second printing of the same size, indicated by 'ten thousand' on the title-page, was completely disposed of by the end of March. The sale of the book was indeed phenomenal … In the emotion-charged atmosphere of mid-nineteenth-century America Uncle Tom's Cabin exploded like a bombshell … the social impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin on the United States was greater than that of any book before or since" (PMM).
2 volumes, octavo. Original purple vertical-fine-ribbed cloth, spines lettered in gilt, front cover vignette stamped in gilt, other decoration stamped in blind, cream endpapers. Title vignettes and 6 wood-engraved plates. Early pencilled ownership inscriptions of Mrs Ruth D Wilson to front blanks. Spines faded as usual (the purple dye fugitive in light), a couple of minor chips at spine ends, a few marks to boards and occasionally internally, but an excellent unrestored copy in original condition.
