THE BERTRAMS. A Novel

1859. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1859. Original blind-stamped brown cloth.

First American (and first one-volume) Edition. This was not generally regarded as one of Trollope's better efforts; the author himself remarked in his autobiography, I do not know that I have ever heard it well spoken of by my friends, and I cannot remember that there is any character in it that has dwelt in the minds of novel-readers. Much of the novel's action takes place in Jerusalem and the Holy Land, where George Bertram meets the father he had not seen since his boyhood. THE BERTRAMS was Trollope's second book to be published in America, following DOCTOR THORNE the previous year. This is a very good copy, perhaps near-fine (slight wear at the spine ends, one small nick in the front cover cloth, light foxing as always with this 1850s paper). The front free endpaper bears the blind-stamp of Stanwood & Souther (bookseller in Augusta Maine in 1859), as well as the early signature of a woman from that same town. In our experience, THE BERTRAMS is considerably scarcer than Harper's subsequent double-columned Trollope American editions. W. Smith pp 5-8 (this copy is the one pictured on page 5); see Sadleir (TROLLOPE) 8.