A Beautiful Blunder -- SIGNED copy
Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1926. Limited Edition. Hardcover. 8vo. Pp. 136. Foreword. Signed by Barton on limitation page. Dark green cloth with printed paper label on spine. General wear, with a dampstain splotch on front cover (see photo). Good + / Original Glassine. Item #1230
President Lincoln's sublime letter to Mrs. Bixby, wherein he offers condolences for the loss of all five Bixby sons in the Union cause, receives exhaustive treatment by Barton. Barton concludes that only two of the sons died, one deserted, one was honorably discharged and one with a fate unknown. Such facts -- and the realization that Mrs. Bixby was less than honorable -- don't detract from the beauty and force of Lincoln's letter, nor does revelation from recent scholarship that John Hay probably wrote the letter! (see John Hay biography, 2013).
Price: $60.00