Handsomely bound books: Travels in New-England and New-York, Vols. I-IV, by Timothy Dwight. First edition. New Haven, CT: printed by S. Converse, 1821-1822. Hardcover bound in three-quarter morocco with red marbled boards, 6 x 9.5, 2112 pages. Book condition: VG/None, with light edgewear, minor foxing throughout, and the bookplate of Joel Davis Madden, Jr., affixed inside each book; folded maps are absent.
Timothy Dwight, president of Yale, traveled around New England and New York over a period of ten years, compiling his observations in this four-volume set. This work was intended to be a correction of the misconceptions of European travel writers who had, in his view, wrongly characterized America.
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.
