THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS. An Autobiography

(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1918).

FIRST PUBLISHED EDITION OF THIS IMPORTANT BOOK, NOW AN AMERICAN CLASSIC. The book was winner of the 1919 Pulitzer Prize and is in first place on the list of 100 best English language nonfiction books of the 20th century by the Modern Library. THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS was originally printed in 1907 in a limited edition for circulation among interested parties only. Adams intended the work as a study of multiplicity in the twentieth century and planned it as a sequel to his MONT-SAINT-MICHEL AND CHARTRES, which was a study of the unity of the thirteenth century. The later chapters embody Adams' dynamic theory of history.
In this moving book Adams comes to terms with the dawning a new century that is so radically different from the world of his youth. It is not, like most autobiographies, as much a record of Adams' deeds and experiences but more a record of his introspections and observations as the social, technological, political, and intellectual worlds all changed around him. It is also a critique of the traditional and "proper" 19th century education system that failed completely in preparing him for such changes.
The exact number of copies of the 1907 printing are not know, but BAL suggests only a few more than 40; and Merle Johnson asserts only 100 were done. Thus for all practical purposes this is the first edition. Item #32641

First Published Edition, issue without the date in Roman on title-page. Large 8vo, publisher's original blue cloth gilt lettered on the spine and upper cover, t.e.g. x, 519 pp. Overall a very good copy, internally quite clean and fresh. The blue cloth covered binding sturdy with firm hinges, the extremities only slightly aged. Reviews affixed to the front free-fly.

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