The New Star Chamber and other Essays

Chicago: Hammersmark Publishing, 1904. FIRST EDITION. Contemporary brown cloth backed brown boards with paper title labels on front cover and spine, top edge gilt; a very good copy. Inscribed in pencil by Masters in 1904 on front paste-down. First edition. Masters' third and one of his most elusive books, a collection of political essays. Articles include discussions of Theodore Roosevelt, John Marshall, Jefferson and Hamilton, implied powers and imperialism, election of federal judges, despotism, and observations on democracy, among others. “In those essays, Masters praises Jefferson as the man "who gave form and purpose to the republic," while Hamilton is condemned as a monarchist whose policies amounted to nothing less than "imperialism." As early as 1904, Masters feared that the republic of Jefferson had decayed into a corrupt Hamiltonian empire.”

Masters (1868-1950) was an American attorney, poet, and essayist, most known for his Spoon River Anthology and his biographies of Lincoln and Twain.