Bidspirit auction | 1879 The Life and Travels

1879 The Life and Travels of General Grant by Hon. J. T. Headley Salesman's Sample Book - This 1879 edition of The Life and Travels of General Grant is authored by Hon. J. T. Headley and published by Hubbard Bros. with offices in Philadelphia, Springfield, Chicago, and Cincinnati. The volume is bound in terracotta cloth featuring black and gilt-stamped ornamentation on the front board and spine. The title page bears the date 1879 and lists additional publishers including Thomas Prothero in Kansas, A. L. Bancroft & Co. in San Francisco, and W. H. Thompson & Co. in Boston. The work includes a frontispiece engraving of Ulysses S. Grant after a photograph by Matthew Brady, and is profusely illustrated with wood engravings throughout, detailing Grant's life and world tour. A significant characteristic of this volume is the inclusion of several pages at the end of the text containing a handwritten subscriber ledger. The ledger features names, residences such as Canandaigua and East Bloomfield, binding styles, and prices, indicating the book served as a salesman's or canvasser's prospectus. The reverse of the title page contains the printed text COPYRIGHTED, ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, 1879. The cloth boards exhibit significant shelf wear, with fraying and loss of cloth at the head and tail of the spine (photo 2, 4). Board corners are bumped and frayed, with board exposure (photo 1). The internal leaves show scattered foxing, tanning, and localized staining (photo 6, 7). A tide mark from previous moisture contact is visible on the lower margin of the frontispiece and title page (photo 5, 6). The pages of the handwritten subscriber ledger are toned and show light handling wear (photo 14, 15).