Beschreibung:

LINCOLN, ABRAHAM and STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. Political Debates between Hon. Abraham Lincoln and Hon. Stephen A. Douglas. In the Celebrated Campaign of 1858, in Illinois. Including the Preceding Speeches of Each, at Chicago, Springfield, Etc.: Also the Two Great Speeches of Mr. Lincoln, in Ohio, in 1859. Carefully Prepared by the Reporter of Each, at Chicago, at the Times of Their Delivery. Columbus: Follett, Foster and Company, 1860. Tall 8vo, 240 x 150mm. (9 1/4 x 6 in.), original publisher's tan cloth, corners and spine extremities rubbed, scattered foxing (as usual), glue discolorations to paper beneath inscription, several contemporary newspaper clippings concerning the 1860 campaign laid in or neatly pasted (by Cogdal?) to front and back pastedowns and free endpages, glue discolorations to paper beneath a portion of inscription . FIRST EDITION, with the "2" at bottom of page 17 (according to Monaghan probably indicating a First Issue) and without rule over imprint on verso of titlepage, PRESENTATION COPY TO ISAAC COGDAL, inscribed in pencil by Lincoln on front free endpage: "ALincoln to Isaac Cogdal;" several ink and pencil marginal notes apparently in Cogdal's hand. Sabin 41156; Monaghan 69; Not noted in Harry E. Pratt, "Lincoln Autographed Debates," in Manuscripts , 6:4 (Summer 1954), pp. 194-201. [ With :] An autograph document signed by Isaac Cogdal, n.p., 29 September 1857, 1 page, oblong 8vo, torn from a larger sheet of blue, lined stationery , concerning the estate of John Hind; two printed checks drawn on a Petersburg, Illinois bank, accomplished and signed by Isaac Cogdal, both dated 1873. A PRESENTATION LINCOLN-DOUGLAS Debates TO A FRIEND FROM LINCOLN'S NEW SALEM DAYS The text of these debates, the most celebrated in American political history, was set in type from Lincoln's personal scrapbook, into which he pasted transcripts of his and Douglas's addresses as they were printed (at times imperfectly) in the Chicago Press and Tribune and elsewhere. This collected edition, issued in April, a few months before Lincoln's nomination, rapidly became a best seller and over 30,000 copies were printed in a matter of months ( Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia , p. 81). Lincoln personally received 100 copies to distribute, but Pratt's pioneering census located only 18; a number of others have come to light since then, all but two inscribed in pencil, probably due to the highly absorbent nature of the paper on which the book was printed. Isaac Cogdal's family settled in Illinois in 1823; like Lincoln, he was born in Kentucky. A stone-mason and bricklayer by trade, Cogdal met Lincoln in New Salem in the 1830s, later studied law at Lincoln's urging, and was admitted to the bar in 1860 ( History of Menard and Mason Counties, Illinois , Chicago: Baskin & Co., 1879, p. 749-750). Lincoln is recorded as having represented Cogdal in several law cases. Provenance : Elsie O. Sang (sale, Sotheby's New York, 27 March 1985, lot 74).