A Memoir of Ralph Waldo Emerson [Advance Copy, Inscribed by Cabot to James Russell Lowell]

Boston and New York, 1887. First Edition, Advance Issue. 8vo, publisher’s blue cloth, 809 pp. One of about 50 copies of the advance issue. Near Fine. This with a great association, from Cabot to James Russell Lowell. Both volumes with identical tipped-in notes from the publisher reading, “This advance copy of Mr. Cabot’s Memoir of Mr. Emerson, is sent to you in accordance with the author’s desire that, as a personal friend of Mr. Emerson, you may have it on the latter’s birthday, May 25; but as the work will not be issued till September next, you are respectfully and earnestly requested to regard it as confidential, until its formal publication, and especially to guard against its being reviewed in the press before that time. Houghton, Mifflin & Co.” Additionally inscribed on the front blank: “James Russell Lowell / from J. E. Cabot / May 25 1887.” A nearly fine set with some fraying to cloth at head of spine and minimal normal wear, quite well preserved overall.