[Rarebooks] FS: 1840 Edward Everett ALS

[Ian Brabner, Rare Americana]

We can offer today:

(POLITICS – MASSACHUSETTS)
Edward Everett (1794–1865)
1840 Autograph Letter Signed by Edward Everett, future Gettysburg orator.
Somerset Street [Massachusetts]. April 29, 1840. Quarto, [1]p. + integral
address leaf with red wax seal. Light creases, small paper loss to unused
area where seal was opened; very good.

Future Gettysburg orator Edward Everett is irritated and writes this
one-page letter to Nathaniel Greene, Postmaster. Everett is irked as he was
sent an unsolicited printed enclosure (not here present) in an envelope and
he was charged double postage. Everett writes that he returns the item,
unopened and unwanted, to the postmaster.

In part: “It is a single sheet ... contained I presume nothing but printed
matter, and is placed in an envelope open at both ends. It also also of the
nature of a periodical publication, being regularly issued every year.” It
seems Everett feels he is being unfairly overcharged by Green based on the
item’s format.

In the 19th century, Edward Everett was celebrated as a preacher and public
orator. He is most famous for delivering a two-hour oration in 1863 at the
dedication of the Gettysburg military cemetery. Everett’s speech was
subsequently eclipsed by President Abraham Lincoln’s immortal, two-minute
Gettysburg Address.

$75

Best,
Ian Brabner

Ian Brabner, Rare Americana (ABAA-ILAB)
(302) 998-2886  www.RareAmericana.com
PO Box 4900  Wilmington, DE 19808 USA

Member: Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, International
League of Antiquarian Booksellers, Manuscript Society