[Rarebooks] FS: O. W. Holmes, Jr.: First Edition of THE COMMON LAW

[Charles Agvent]

 From our upcoming annual Summer Miscellany Catalogue due to be posted on our 
home page within a week or so.  It will contain a variety of fine and unusual 
items, including interesting Americana, Autographs, Illustrated Books, uncommon 
Modern First Editions, and books on a variety of topics, including a small but 
strong selection of books related to law and jurisprudence, such as this:

HOLMES, Oliver Wendell, Jr. THE COMMON LAW. Boston: Little, Brown,
and  Company  1881.  First  Edition.  First Issue  with  the  two-line
printer's  imprint on title page verso repeated with ampersand on page
422.  Original  purple cloth.  A classic of literature  on  law,  this
collection  of lectures given at the Lowell Institute in Boston is one
of  the  most  important books in the field.  Holmes served  as  chief
justice  of  the Massachusetts Supreme Court from 1899 until 1902.  In
1902  he was appointed to the United States Supreme Court by President
Theodore  Roosevelt, a position he held until his retirement in  1932.
Holmes  became  famous for his liberal interpretations of  the  United
States  Constitution and was known as the "Great Dissenter" because of
his  disagreement  with  the  views of his colleagues  on  the  Court.
Grolier,  100  American, 84: "This brilliant exposition, as  effective
on  English scholarship and legal thinking as on American, of the true
nature  of law both as a development from the past and an organism  of
the  present,  blew  fresh  air into  lawyers'  minds  encrusted  with
Blackstone and  Kent."  From its opening paragraph: "The life  of  the
law  has  not been logic: it has been experience.... In order to  know
what  it  is,  we  must know what it has been, and what  it  tends  to
become."   With the bookplate of Charles Robinson Smith on  the  front
pastedown  as  well as the bookseller's ticket of L. K. Strouse &  Co.
Typical  aging  of  paper; neat binder's tape reinforcement  of  front
hinge.  Rubbing  to  top of spine with some wear and the heel  of  the
spine with slight loss of lettering of publisher's name.  Very Good or
better copy of a scarce title.                                $1750.00

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CHARLES AGVENT
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Mertztown, PA  19539-8750
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