With Thackeray in America

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. Good+ with no dust jacket. 1893. First American Edition. Hardcover. Overall wear to spine with bumped ends and residue from removal of a library label, wear to corners and edges, small remanant of a laid down library pocket on the rear endpaper, and "Withdrawn" stamps to front pastedown and head of text block.; Eyre Crowe's account of William Makepeace Thackeray's 1892-1893 travels in the US. Crowe, a skilled British painter, served as Thackeray's secretary for the trip and recorded their journeys in both text and drawings. The result was a view of US life as rendered by a truly fascinated Englishman. Crowe recorded the proceedings of Congress, hospitality in the Southern states, slave markets, Boston, sledding, Baltimore, Thackeray's lectures, and all manner of daily doings. As a painter his topic matter tilted heavily toward social realism, and he maintained this approach in documenting the American life he observed. Crowe was particularly struck by pervasive racism he observed, the injustice of slavery, and its commerce in human lives: he sketched a slave sale, to the chagrin of an auctioneer and crowd who threatened him, and that sketch served as the study for his famous painting "Slaves Waiting for Sale: Richmond Virginia." Crowe was, not the least, a keen observer of Thackeray himself and Thackeray's observations and reactions to the American culture he passed through. All black and white drawings by Crowe. Tissue-guarded frontis of Thackeray lecturing in New York, the famous sketch of the slave sale, and 115 more plates and cuts depicting scenes of Crowe's and Thackeray's journey. Nearly all are sketches drawn in the moment, but an occasional etching by Crowe is included. In smooth green cloth over boards, gilt titles to spine and front. Preface, List of Illustrations, Index, publisher's catalog at back. A significant work of observation, bolstered by the opinions of a cultured, yet realistic, Englishman explaining by observation who Americans are. Crowe's sketches abandon technical perfection for capturing the human quality of each scene he depicted. This book remains an important work, in my view. With Preface, List of 116 illustrations, and 8 pages of the publisher's fiction catalog. This is an ex-library copy with "Withdrawn" stamp on the pastedown and, though well worn externally, is well-bound, Good+, and a sound, clean copy.; B&W Illustrations; 8vo 8" - 9" tall; xvi,[2],179,[8] pages .