Rare, early authoritative work on the French and Indian War by a British Army officer: An Historical Journal of the Campaigns in North-America, for the Years 1757, 1758, 1759, and 1760: Containing the Most Remarkable Occurrences of that Period; Particularly the Two Sieges of Quebec, Vols. I and II, by Captain John Knox. First edition. London: printed for the author and sold by W. Johnston and J. Dodsley, 1769. Hardcovers bound in full brown calf, 8.5 x 10.25, 870 pages plus errata leaves at rear. The first volume features an engraved frontispiece portrait of Jeffery Amherst, and the second features one of James Wolfe; the map is missing. Book condition: G+/None, with split joints, flaking and rubbing to leather, losses to title labels on spine, endpapers partially detached, and the bookplates of Herman LeRoy Edgar and Joel Davis Madden, Jr., affixed inside both volumes; aside from minor dampstaining along the bottom of some pages, the pages are very clean and tightly bound.
Captain John Knox served in North America between 1757 and 1760, and this work—a composite of Knox's own diary, official documents, and operational orders—is recognized as one of the most important and complete account of these campaigns. It remains one of the best original authorities for the death of Wolfe and the conquest of Canada, and is highly sought by collectors and historians alike.
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.
