WEBB, Richard. Ed. by. The Life and Letters of Captain John Brown, Who Was Executed at Charlestown, Virginia, Dec. 2, 1859, For an Armed Attack Upon American Slavery; with Notices of Some of His Confederates (Signed by the author

Frontispiece portrait, being a mounted original albumen oval photograph of John Brown. London: Smith, Elder, and Co., 1861. [printed by Alfred Webb, Dublin]. True First edition. Post octavo. pp. xiv, 453. Title printed in red and black. Publisher’s blind stamped brown cloth. Early bookseller’s ticket (John Mowat, Dublin) on rear pastedown. Traces of old stain to frontispiece, wear to spine ends, faint foxing to the title page and a few scattered spots, elsewhere, but a clean copy overall. Signed "God bless you, your friend, John Brown"
One of the earliest biographies of the legendary abolitionist, this volume is particularly valuable for reproducing many letters by Brown, including a chapter devoted to his correspondence in prison while he awaited his execution. There are also remembrances of Brown by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker, William Lloyd Garrison, and Wendell Phillips. The superb frontispiece photograph of Brown depicts him without his now famous beard, which he only grew a year or two before the raid on Harper’s Ferry to disguise himself as his plans for rebellion advanced. The editor, Richard Davis Webb (1805-1872), a Quaker printer and publisher from Dublin, was one of the most vocal of the Irish abolitionists. He co-founded the Hibernian Antislavery Association in 1837 and helped establish the Anti-Slavery League in 1846. He was closely allied with the movement in the United States and developed a warm friendship with William Lloyd Garrison. “Webb was a vital link between European and American activists. He helped to organize many of the visits of American lecturers to Britain and Ireland, and his voluminous correspondence with Garrison and others is a valuable source of information for historians.” - Dictionary of Irish Biography. “He was also the publisher of the Irish edition of Frederick Douglass s first autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845). While the present volume was distributed by a London publisher, it was printed at Webb’s firm in Dublin by his son, Alfred, who later became a leading Irish nationalist and member of Parliament. Not in Sabin or Howes.
The albumen oval photograph (the daguerrotype taken by Benjamin Battels in 1855) at the frontispiece, has Brown’s printed inscription ‘Farewell God bless you Your Friend John Brown’ beneath it.
[L3 4 Small Revolving Bookcase]