First Pennsylvania Printing of the Gettysburg Address

Lincoln, Abraham

Paper

Abraham Lincoln. "The Gettysburg Address” contained in “Report of the Select Committee Relative to the Soldiers' National Cemetery, Together with the Accompanying Documents, as reported to the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, March 31, 1864." Harrisburg: Singerly & Myers, State Printers, 1864. Lincoln’s famous speech was originally delivered at the Dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg; this early volume following shortly after that dedication records the events of the day, details of the cemetery and the soldiers interred there, and the original text of the Gettysburg Address.

The Gettysburg Address is a speech that U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered during the American Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the afternoon of Thursday, November 19, 1863, four and a half months after the Union armies defeated those of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg. It is one of the best-known speeches in American history. This is the first Pennsylvania printing of the Address. It occupies the second unnumbered page of this volume on the recent consecration of the Soldier’s National Cemetary, near the end. Included also in the Report is material on the creation of the cemetery with statistical data, names of the soldiers buried there, and the program at the dedicatory ceremonies, including the benedictions and the oration of the featured speaker, Edward Everett. Wills's study of the Address discusses its textual variations and the surprising difficulty in determining precisely what Lincoln said. As printed here, it tracks what Wills has identified as the likely text spoken by Lincoln; but differs in several respects from the 'final version,' for example the omission of 'poor' in 'our poor power to add or detract.' In fair condition. Foxed, frequent margin spotting. Original cloth, worn at spine and extremities of boards, with cardboard below cloth revealed. One full-page map of the battlefield and hospitals; one folding map of the cemetery grounds.

Item #15860

Price: $1,400.00