[Adams, Henry]:

$15,000 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

MONT SAINT MICHEL AND CHARTRES. First edition of Henry Adams' important and highly personal meditation on medieval culture and architecture, privately published for distribution initially to family and, eventually, to friends, with this copy bearing a presentation inscription from Adams to his friend and Lafayette Square neighbor Edith Eustis. The size of the edition, while not specified, was quite small, and in both format and intent Mont Saint Michel foreshadows The Education of Henry Adams, published three years later. In 1912, Adams prepared a revised and enlarged edition of this work, again for private distribution, and in 1913 the first public edition appeared, accompanied by an introduction by eminent American architect Ralph Adams Cram.An heir to one of America's most distinguished political families, Henry Adams (1838–1918) was the grandson of U.S. President John Qunicy Adams and the great-grandson of President John Adams. His father, Charles Francis Adams, was a diplomat and during the Civil War served as ambassador to the United Kingdom, with young Henry accompanying him as his private secretary. After the war, Henry went on to work as a journalist, Harvard professor, novelist, and historian. Among his published works were two novels, Democracy (1880) and Esther (1884); a nine-volume History of the United States during the administrations of Jefferson and Madison (1889–1891); and two very personal works, both written in his sixties, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres (

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