Stowe, Harriet Beecher

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly. Boston: John P. Jewett; Cleveland: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, 1852



2 volumes, in 8s (7 1/2 x 4 5/8 in.; 191 x 118 mm). Title-pages with wood-engraved vignettes, 6 wood-engraved plates, possibly after Hammatt Billings; some scattered foxing, most prominent at beginning and end of first volume. Publisher's maroon vertical-ribbed cloth BAL's B), covers panelled in blind, front covers with central gilt vignette of slave cabin, repeated in blind on rear covers, spines gilt-lettered and stamped in blind, yellow endpapers; front free endpaper adhered to initial blank, extremities a bit rubbed. Half brown morocco slipcase, chemises.

BAL 19343; Grolier/American 61; PM M 332; Sabin 92457

2 volumes, in 8s (7 1/2 x 4 5/8 in.; 191 x 118 mm). Title-pages with wood-engraved vignettes, 6 wood-engraved plates, possibly after Hammatt Billings; some scattered foxing, most prominent at beginning and end of first volume. Publisher's maroon vertical-ribbed cloth BAL's B), covers panelled in blind, front covers with central gilt vignette of slave cabin, repeated in blind on rear covers, spines gilt-lettered and stamped in blind, yellow endpapers; front free endpaper adhered to initial blank, extremities a bit rubbed. Half brown morocco slipcase, chemises.
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First edition, first printing, of Stowe's celebrated anti-slavery novel and one of the most influential books of the nineteenth century. The object of Uncle Tom's Cabin, wrote Stowe in her preface, was "to awaken sympathy and feeling for the African race, as they exist among us; to show their wrongs and sorrows, under a system so necessarily cruel and unjust as to defeat and do away the good effects of all that can be attempted for them, by their best friends, under it."

The novel first appeared in serial form in the abolitionist periodical National Era. Before the appearance of the last two serial installments, J. P. Jewett issued this two-volume edition, which became a national sensation, selling over 120,000 the first year. The first printing comprised 5,000 copies. By early spring of 1853, a cumulative total of 310,000 copies had been sold in the United States.  A remarkably clean and bright copy.