Magnificent limited edition signed book, containing an original handwritten manuscript leaf from Roosevelt's draft: The Winning of the West, Volumes I-IV. Daniel Boone Edition, limited issue, numbered 183/200. NY: G. P. Putnam's Sons/Knickerbocker Press, 1900. Hardcover in original publisher’s three-quarter morocco with marbled boards and gilt top edge, 7.25 x 10.25. Inlaid opposite the colophon is a page from Roosevelt's handwritten manuscript, 8.25 x 6.5, in full: "…an Indian's head, or noticed one running from cover to cover. He fired away all his ammunition, and the bands of his musket flew off; he picked up another just as two levy officers ordered a charge, and followed the charging party at a run. By this time the battalions were broken, and only some thirty men followed the officers. The Indians fled before the bayonets, until they reached a ravine filled with down timber; whereupon they halted behind the impenetrable tangle of fallen logs. The soldiers also halted, and were speedily swept away by the fire of the Indians, whom they could not reach; but Van Cleve, showing his skill as a woodsman, covered himself behind a small tree, and gave back [shot for shot]." The book has also been signed and inscribed on the first free end page in thick black ink, "with good wishes to George McFadden Esq,. From Theodore Roosevelt, March 18th 1905." Autographic condition: fine, with some bleeding to the inscription on the endpaper. Book condition: good, with both boards detached from the signed volume; the front boards detached from volumes three and four; and general scratches and wear to exterior.
An immensely desirable special edition featuring a page from Roosevelt's handwritten draft, the text of which appears in the fourth volume as part of his discussion of St. Clair's defeat. In the manuscript, Roosevelt extolls the bravery of Benjamin Van Cleve, a pioneer Ohio settler who escorted pack horses to Arthur St. Clair's army during the Northwest Indian War, and witnessed his defeat. Roosevelt was a prolific author, and in fact had first come to prominence as a serious historian with the two-volume work The Naval War of 1812. He turned to writing The Winning of the West, his most ambitious work, after suffering defeat in the 1886 election for mayor of New York City. Tracing the history of American westward expansion, it was first published in four volumes by G. P. Putnam's Sons between 1889 and 1896. This special 'Daniel Boone' edition was released in 1900, with Volume I in each set containing a leaf of the original draft.
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