Provenance: Marshall D. Krolick Collection

Edward Everett (1794-1865). An Address Delivered at The Consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1864.

8vo. Modern one-quarter morocco with marbled boards, spine gilt. Carbonell, Gettysburg Address, 6; Howes E-233.

INSCRIBED BY EDWARD EVERETT to front fly leaf: "Horatio Gates Jones Esq. / With the best respects of / Edward Everett. / Boston 14 May 1864." 

An early edition of Everett's account of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. When Everett originally published the work in 1863, it was the first book-form publication of the famous oration, issued just three days after the consecration of the Cemetery. 

Carbonell notes that "this is the so-called 'official report' authorized and paid for by the Soldiers' National Cemetery Association, published in Boston by Little, Brown and Company, copyrighted by them on January 26, 1864, and sold for the benefit of the 'Cemetery Monument fund'. The January 30 issue of the New York Tribune announced that the book was 'Published This Day' and in a letter to Lincoln with the same date Everett wrote 'I shall have the honor of forwarding to you by Express today or on Monday next, a copy of the Authorized Edition of my Gettysburg Address & of the Remarks made by yourself & the other matters connected with the Ceremonial of the Dedication of the Cemetery. It appeared, owing to unavoidable delays, only yesterday.'"  (6, p.10)

Everett also arranged for Houghton to print 100 copies of a separate edition, An address delivered at the consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, 19th November 1863, for his private use, which he reported receiving on February 13 1864. This has 56 pages, the same two illustrations, imprint information, and copyright claim as the official report, and like Address delivered at the consecration of the Soldiers' Cemetery printed for him by Farwell, it does not include Lincoln's Address. Everett's correspondence also reveals that this offprint was not only a gift from Houghton but, at Everett's request, it was printed on better quality paper than that used for the official report." (Carbonell 6, p. 10).

Everett himself was considered one of the great American orators of the antebellum and Civil War eras and was a featured speaker alongside Lincoln at the dedication ceremony of the Gettysburg National Cemetery. His speech, also included here, lasted over two hours. Lincoln immediately followed him with the two-minute Gettysburg Address. 

Notably, this copy is dedicated by Everett to Horatio Gates Jones [Jr.] Esq. (1822-1893), a Philadelphia politician. 

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