The Prince of the House of David; or, Three Years in the Holy City

299 Washington Square, Boston : Roberts Brothers Publishers , 1883. 1883 at title and copyright page. Revised edition with textual printing errors corrected. From title page: "Carefully Revised and Corrected by the Author, Expressly for this New Edition." Fine gold cloth boards, gilt and black cover design, ornately detailed gilt spine titles and design, moderate shelf wear. Bright pictorial cover features oval gilt portrait of Adina w/detailed black embossed borders. Spine features crisp titles and accompanying gilded imagery of dove, winged angel, dentelle flourishes. Pages very good, clean. Brown patterned endpapers. String-bind good, square; hinges intact. Small antiquarian bookstore label inside cover: "H. H. Otis, Bookseller & Stationer, 288 Main St. Buffalo, N. Y." Pictorial tags features text as titles of a book with 'BIBLE' at spine. This epistolary novel by J. H. Ingraham is uniquely presented as a collection of thirty-nine letters from Adina to her father, Manasseh Benjamin, while she is living and studying in Jerusalem. Interesting from a historical perspective in that the first letter is dated, according to the Jewish chronology, three years before the crucifixion of Christ. Full title: "The Prince of the House of David; or, Three Years in the Holy City. Being a Series of the Letters of Adina, a Jewess of Alexandria, Supposed to be Sojourning in Jerusalem in the Days of Herod, Addressed to her Father, a Wealthy Jew in Egypt, and Relating, As if by an Eye-Witness, All the Scenes and Wonderful Incidents in the Life of Jesus of Nazareth, From His Baptism in Jordan to His Crucifixion on Calvary." Excerpt: "My Dear Father: My first duty, as it is my highest pleasure, is to comply with your command to write you as soon as I should arrive at Jerusalem, and this letter, while it conveys intelligence of my arrival, will confirm to you my filial obedience. My journey hither occupied many days. When we traveled in sight of the sea, which we did for three days, I enjoyed the majesty of the prospect, it seemed so like the sky stretched out upon the earth. I also had the good fortune to see several ships, which the Rabbi informed me were Roman galleys, bound some to Sidon, and others into the Nile; and after one of these latter, as it was going to you, I sent a prayer and a wish. Just as we were leaving the sea-shore to turn off into the desert, I saw a wrecked vessel. It looked so helpless and bulky, with its huge black body all out of the water, that it seemed to me like a great sea-monster, stranded and dying; and I felt like pitying it. How terrible a tempest must be upon the sea! I was in hopes to have seen a Leviathan, but was not gratified in the wish. The good Rabbi, who seemed to know all about these things, told me that they seldom appear now in the Middle Sea, but are seen beyond the pillar of Hercules at the world's end." Joseph Holt Ingraham was born in Portland, Maine on January 26, 1809. He spent several years at sea, then worked as a teacher of languages in Mississippi and later wrote for Arthur's periodical. He then became an Episcopal clergyman on March 7, 1852. In Natchez, Ingraham married Mary Brooks, a cousin of Phillips Brooks, author and long-time rector of Trinity Church in Boston; also noted as writing O Little Town of Bethlehem. Under the pen-name F. Clinton Barrington, J. H. wrote stories for popular publications like Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion. When meeting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1846 he supposedly told him that he "has written eighty novels, and of these twenty during the last year." Ingraham tragically died at the age of 51, in Holly Springs, Mississippi from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound in the vestibule of his church. Two pages at front and four pages at back of adverts for available titles from Roberts Brothers. 472 pages. Insured post.. First Revised Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" Tall.