Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller - Old and Rare Books

Lettres sur les États-Unis D'Amerique (Letters on the United States of America) [INSCRIBED BY AUTHOR]

Pisani, Lieutenant-Colonel Ferri

Paris: Librairie de L. Hachette et Cie, 1862. First edition. Hardcover. Octavo. [3] 455, 8pp. Rebound in brown half leather over marbled boards with gilt lettering on spine, retaining original yellow front wrapper with double framing. Inscribed "Ferri Pisani" to unidentified person half-title.

Letters written by Ferri Pisani, aide-de-camp to Prince Napoleon of France, cousin of Emperor Napoleon III, during the prince's two-month tour of the United States, arriving in New York on July 27, 1861. These letters were addressed to another aide to the Prince, Colonel de Franconiere, who had remained in Paris. An unusual and significant document offering a European view of America during its extraordinarily trying time.

The arrival of the party in July of 1861 dated just three months after the outbreak of the American Civil War on April 12, 1861. In the foreword to this French edition Ferri Pisani remarks that due to these extraordinary military and political circumstances the report on the accomplishments of this journey lack great depth, offering a series of rough sketches instead, including the visit at the White House to meet President Lincoln as well as touring the camps and battlefields in Virginia, meeting with the Federal Generals George B. McClellan and Irvin McDowell, and the Confederate Generals P. G. T. Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston, culminating in a visit of St. Louis.

At rear eight pages of publication of the Bibliotheque Variée's new collection. Text in French. Very light wear along edges of binding. Some light to medium foxing of block and edges throughout. Some bleeding of inscription to verso of half-title. Very good- condition. Item #54992

Price: $450.00