1861 The Biglow Papers

Description

An Important Work, Colour Plates, Early Edition, Original Binding, Publishers' Original Binding

The second English edition of the satirical Biglow Papers, written by James Russell Lowell, published by John Camden Hotten in 1861. The book is also the fourth American edition, by the same publishers, but with an introduction, notes, glossary and index by pastor Homer Wilbur. First edition published in 1848.

In the publisher's original blue cloth, with inlaid purple decoration. An illustrated frontispiece and two other colour plates illustrated by British caricaturist George Cruikshank. Collated complete.

Contains original advertisements for 'popular and interesting books' recently published by John Camden Hotton at the end of the book. 

Written in the voices of Horsea Biglow, a New England farmer, and Birdofredum Sawin, a soldier in the Mexican American War, Lowell's The Biglow Papers are a political satire on slavery, the Mexican-American war and war in general. Written through a combination of verse and essays, The Biglow Papers were very significant as a scathing commentary of contemporary American politics by the fireside poet.

This particular edition was special for being published at the outset of the American Civil War, when the social tensions which the books plays on were at their most turbulent.