first edition
1847 · Boston
by Brooks, Edward, & John A. Lowell
Boston: printed by S. N. Dickinson [wrapper imprint: Dickinson Printing Establishment... Damrell & Moore], 1847. First edition, 8vo; pp. 177, [3]; 72; original printed brown wrappers; head of spine chipped away, joints split at head of spine; otherwise very good. Inscribed to "Lemuel Shattuck Esq. with the regards of Edward Brooks" at the top of the front wrapper. In this correspondence Brooks assails Lowell, the executor of the estate of J. W. Boott, Lowell's old employer and partner, who committed suicide in 1845. There was much dissent in the Bootts family and they attempted, unsuccessfully, to set the will aside, which lead to a further rejoinder by Brooks which appeared in 1851 with a whopping 855-page count. Lemuel Shattuck superintended the groundbreaking 1840 Boston census. The federal census of 1840 had been unfavorably criticized and when time came for the census of 1850, Shattuck was called to Washington for consultation. He introduced into the national procedure many features of his pioneering Boston effort. Sabin 8344: "A controversy on the administration of the Boott estate. (Inventory #: 55987)