JAMES K. POLK. (Two-volume set, complete) Jacksonian 1795-1843; Continentalist 1843-1846

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1966. 1st Edition. Cloth. Very Good +/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. A mixed set, volume 1 is a 2nd printing (1966), volume 2 is a 1st edition, 1st printing (1966). A Very Good or better set in Very Good dust jackets. 8vo.,[Vol.1] xiv, 526; [Vol.2] x, 513 pp. bound in dark red cloth in printed dj's. The dj's have minor edge wear, with a small loss at Vol.2's crown. Previous owners name and handsome bookplate on the front endpapers. A Very Good set. *** Sellers' greatest accomplishments in this volume are the examination and digestion of a staggering mass of public and personal papers. These record the fine Italian maneuverings of the Democratic and Whig parties through the presidential campaign of 1844, the final agonies of Texas annexation, the tedious Oregon debate, and the involvement with Mexico which ended in hostilities. If Sellers has missed any substantial collection of political correspondence, this reader is unaware of it. He knows his way around the smoke-filled rooms of the mid-forties as well as James Reston or Joseph Alsop today. For example, his account of how Polk used half-promises about cabinet posts to obtain Senate votes for the joint resolution on Texas goes far to clear up a problem hitherto explained almost entirely by speculation. Here and elsewhere Sellers balances admiration for Polk's deftness, persistence, and luck with regret that he had to incur suspicions of treachery and widen the breach between North and South. - Indiana Magazine of History review, 1967 Vol. 63.***.