Various (The Daily News)

The Daily News Correspondence of The War Between Germany and France (1870-1)

New York, NY: Macmillan and Company, 1871. First Edition. Hardcover in Sewn Binding. If you’re poetic tastes are anything like that of Your Devoted Managing Curator, the year 1871 will strike a few scholarly alarm bells in your head. You might think, as I did, “Damn, Arthur Rimbaud is alive and writing at this period…flicking lice at priests and reinventing the whole of literature as we knew it.” The history-minded, however, will perhaps think of the subject matter which comprises this here volume, — “The Daily News Correspondence of the War Between Germany and France,” taken from the years 1870-1871, “complete in one volume / with maps and plans,” as the title page announces. All inserts of said “maps and plans” are, we’re glad to report, present in this here volume—dormant and clearly seldom (if ever) opened—between pages 18-19, 92-93, 148-149, & 291-292. As the title suggests, the topic surveyed is the Franco-Prussian War (July 19-1870-May 10, 1871), which, as the Encyclopedia Britannica succinctly states, was a “war in which a coalition of German states led by Prussia defeated France. The war marked the end of French hegemony in continental Europe and resulted in the creation of a unified Germany.” As the book’s short preface declares, “In the present volume the story of the war is related from its Declaration, in the summer of 1870, to the conclusion of a peace crowned by the occupation of Paris….Our aim has not been to anticipate the verdict of history, but to present in due order a series of life-like pictures of some of the greatest military events of the century.” Hardcover without dust-jacket, in red cloth boards, as issued: the First Edition of this increasingly scarce, obscure hardboiled history of the Franco-Prussian War. Book in strong near fine condition with only moderate shelf-wear to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge; moderate rubbing, age-typical toning to same; a few tiny bumps and one tiny exhibit of chipping/fraying to boards at bottom right-hand corner of front cover. Interior unmarked with the exception of two previous owner’s signatures; the first near top right-hand corner of half-title page slightly above center-middle, and the second to top right-hand corner of title page, above the word “Correspondence” (see photos). Interior otherwise unusually clean with only slight age-toning, yellowing and spotting to select pages. Near Fine. [Item #5140]

Price: $80.00