Peirce Family Copies

Grandfather's Chair: A History for Youth.

Boston: E.P. Peabody, 1841.

Price: $4,500.00


About the item

First edition. viii, [i], [9]-140 pp. 12mo. Peirce Family Copies. Publisher's blue-gray cloth, printed black title label on front cover (gilt titling mostly worn away). Tear to cloth at head of spine, rear free endpaper removed. Peirce family biographical material tipped in at front. Bookplate of Agnes Neustadt. In a custom blue morocco pull-off box by Stikemen. BAL 7590; Clark A6.1.

Item #306293

[Boxed with:] HAWTHORNE, Nathaniel. Famous Old People: Being the Second Epoch of Grandfather’s Chair. vii, [i], [9]-158 pp. Boston: E.P. Peabody, 1841. Publisher's light brown cloth, printed black title label on front cover (gilt titling mostly worn away). A few stains to covers, overopened at title-page, foxing rear endpapers removed. Bookplate of Agnes Neustadt. BAL 7591; Clark A7.1.

Both volumes with contemporary gift inscriptions to James Mills Peirce (1834-1906), later a mathematician who, like his father Benjamin Peirce, taught at Harvard. The elder Peirce inscribed Grandfather's Chair to his son; while James later gave Famous Old People to his younger brother Charles: "Master Charles Peirce from his brother." This is of course Charles Peirce (1839-1914), the philosopher, logician, and founder of pragmatism.