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William Wirt: Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
William Wirt: Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry

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Auction Date:2022 Oct 12 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Desirable early biography of a founding father: Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry by Wiliam Wirt. First edition. Philadelphia: James Webster, 1817. Hardcover bound in full brown calf, 5.25 x 8.5, 427 pages. Book condition: G/None, with both boards cleanly detached but present, scuffing and rubbing to boards, and the bookplate of Joel Davis Madden, Jr., affixed inside front board; the textblock remains remarkably clean and tightly bound. Accompanied by a custom-made quarter-leather clamshell case.

Wirt's biography of Patrick Henry has been severely criticized both for its hero worship and its style, the subject of the biography having been regarded by many as a creation of Wirt rather than Patrick Henry. The book contains the supposed text of some of Henry's speeches, many of which had never been published. Some historians have since speculated that some of Henry's phrases that have since become famous—such as 'Give me Liberty, or give me Death!'—were fabricated by Wirt for this book. Even Wirt's contemporary Thomas Jefferson shelved his copy of the biography under fiction.