The Education of Henry Adams

The rare true first edition of the Pulitzer-winning autobiography, privately published by Henry Adams and circulated amongst his friends. The descendant of two American presidents, Adams blended the history of his own life with the history of his country, chronicling the political and social turbulence of the late 19th century. He printed 40 advance copies of the book and sent them to living friends who were mentioned in its pages, explaining to one friend:

“I send you a volume, in the nature of proof-sheets, which contains allusions to you and yours which I wish you would glance at, and after running your pen through anything that seems to you personally objectionable return the volume to me.”

Some years later, the demands from Adams’ other friends for copies of their own led him to print another run of 60 copies. The two print runs are indistinguishable, and this unmarked copy could be from either one. It belonged to the renowned book collector and philanthropist Estelle Doheny (1897-1958), a devout Catholic who left most of her property to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles but donated some of her treasures to the Missouri seminary St. Mary's of the Barrens. The Education of Henry Adams was among them, and rested at the seminary for almost 50 years until it was auctioned off with the rest of the collection in 2001.

The slightly revised trade edition of The Education of Henry Adams was published to great acclaim in 1918 and is now considered a classic of American literature. Adams is both omnipresent and elusive in his autobiography, which makes no mention of his happy marriage and its tragic end. Its dominant theme is the contrast between medieval unity and modern multiplicity. The author was a well-heeled, well-traveled, well-connected man and brought all his experience and education to bear on his deconstruction of Western society. He wrote of himself, in the third person:

“Probably no child, born in the year, held better cards than he. Whether life was an honest game of chance, or whether the cards were marked and forced, he could not refuse to play his excellent hand.”.