Scarce and interesting first edition book: Life of Joseph Brant-Thayendanegea, Including the Indian Wars of the American Revolution, Vols. I and II, by William L. Stone. First edition. NY: George Dearborn & Co., 1838. Hardcover, 6 x 9.25, 1083 pages. Book condition: G+/None, with edgewear, chipping and splits to spine cloth, moderate foxing and staining to textblock, and the bookplate of Joel Davis Madden, Jr., affixed inside each volume.
Bibliographer Wright Howes declared Stone's Life of Brant to be the 'best biography of an American Indian.' Thayendanegea, or Joseph Brant, was a Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York, who was closely associated with Great Britain during and after the American Revolution. Perhaps the Native American of his generation best known to the Americans and British, he met many of the most significant Anglo-American people of the age, including both George Washington and King George III.
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.
