Important early history of the War of 1812: History of the Late War in the Western Country, comprising a full account of all the transactions in that quarter, from the commencement of hostilities at Tippecanoe to the termination of the contest at New Orleans on the return of peace, by Robert B. McAfee [hand-inked on title page]. First edition. Lexington, KY: Worsley & Smith, 1816. Hardcover bound in full brown calf, 5.25 x 8, 534 pages. Book condition: G+/None, with rubbing and scuffing to boards, missing spine label, leather split at spine head and front joint, ink notations and a newspaper clipping affixed to endpapers, light overall toning and staining to textblock, and the bookplate of Joel Davis Madden, Jr., affixed to front pastedown.
Bibliographer Wright Howes wrote of this work: 'For scope and authenticity rivaled only by Dawson's Life of Harrison. Material was supplied by two of the ablest commanders, Harrison and Shelby.' Peter Gibson Thomson also held high esteem for the volume: 'A valuable work. Very scarce. It is the original from which later writers borrowed freely. It narrates, in detail, the causes of the war—Hull's Campaign—Harrison's Campaign—Battle of Lake Erie—and all the incidents of the War of 1812 in Ohio and the Northwest Territory are given with great minutiae of detail.'
Joel Davis Madden, Jr., left Princeton University in 1905 and moved west to make his fortune in the railroad industry. He went on to become an executive with the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and died suddenly in 1928 at the age of 41. His book collection, offered by his granddaughter, has not been publicly offered or privately sold in a century.
