Scarce first edition book: A Narrative of the Military Actions of Colonel Marinus Willett, Taken chiefly from his own Manuscript, by his son, William M. Willett. First edition. NY: G. & C. & H. Carvill, 1831. Hardcover bound in three-quarter navy morocco with blue boards, 5.5 x 8.75, 162 pages. Book condition: VG/None, with moderate staining to the title page and frontispiece, some marginal staining throughout, and the bookplate of Joel Davis Madden, Jr., affixed to front pastedown.
In his 'Essay Towards an Indian Bibliography' of 1873, Thomas Warren Field wrote of this work: 'Colonel Willett was an eminent partisan officer during the Revolution, serving principally on the frontiers of New York, in campaigns against the Six Nations. The narrative is therefore in great part composed of incidents connected with Indian warfare.'
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.
