Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly. (2 volumes) by Stowe, Harriet Beecher - 1852

Boston: John P. Jewett & Company, 1852 First edition of probably the most socially influential American book ever published. This is the true first edition with no other printings indicated on the title page. Author's SIGNED and dated card mounted to front blank flyleaf of volume I: "Very Truly Yours, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mandarin, Florida, March 28, 1882" (Stowe's winter home). 2 volumes. Pp. [iii]-x, [13]-312 + iv, [5]-322. Title vignettes and 6 wood-engraved plates. Handsomely and professionally rebound in three-quarter black morocco, marbled sides, spine with gilt rules between panels, raised bands, gilt lettering. Bookplate on inner cover of each volume. An exceptional copy, bright and clean throughout with no foxing or toning whatsoever. Pagination and plates collated complete. Boston: John P. Jewett & Company. Cleveland, Ohio: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, 1852. The edition of this first printing consisted of 5000 copies of which 3000 sold on the first day. Uncle Tom's Cabin is one of the few American novels to have a lasting impact on the way we live our lives. The sale of the book was indeed phenomenal. "In the emotion-charged atmosphere of mid-nineteenth-century America Uncle Tom's Cabin exploded like a bombshell. To those engaged in fighting slavery it appeared as an indictment of all the evils inherent in the system they opposed; to the pro-slavery forces it was a slanderous attack on 'the Southern way of life'... the social impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin on the United States was greater than of any book before or since" (Printing and the Mind of Man). [BAL: 19343; Grolier American 100: 61; Printing and the Mind of Man: 332; Sabin: 92457; Wright: 2401]..