Narrative and Critical History of America. [8 volumes]

Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1889 Riverside Press edition, first published over a period of six years from 1884-1889. 8 volumes. Small, thick quarto. Approximately 500-600 pages per volume. Well-illustrated with hundreds of portraits, facsimiles, engravings, maps, facsimile signatures, etc. Each volume indexed separately, the final volume containing a general index. Extensive notes. Publisher's three-quarter dark brown morocco, spines gilt and blind-stamped, dark brown pebbled cloth sides. Light extremity rubbing. Bookplate in each volume. A fine set. The set is "composed of critical essays by different writers covering American history in detail to the adoption of the Constitution and briefly to about 1850. The most valuable parts of the work are the critical essays on the sources and Mr. Winsor's notes, which together form an exhaustive and generally critical account of the printed and manuscript sources and of the secondary authorities on American history. The volumes are rich in facsimiles of maps, historical illustrations, and portraits. For the student it is the most useful and valuable work on American history that he can possess" (Larned). An important and comprehensive reference, this work has much on aboriginal America and pre-Columbian exploration; Spanish, English, and French explorations and settlements; the English and French in North America; the establishment of state and federal governments and the statesmen involved, early trade and treaties with other nations, especially among the Americas, slavery and slave-trade, and much more. It is regarded as one of the most useful works on the Western hemisphere, its history, cartography and bibliography. Justin Winsor (1831-1897) was the librarian at Harvard College and the first president of the American Library Association. He also authored and edited numerous other important titles of Americana. [Howes I: W-578; Howes II: W-577; Larned, Literature of American History: 404]..