The Chess Monthly Volume IV (4)

v+402 pages with diagrams. Octavo (9" x6 1/4") bound in full leather with gilt lettering to spine with black labels and original wrappers bound in. Volume IV. (Bibliotheca van der Linde-Niemeijeriana:6389) (Hagedorn: 36) First edition.

Fiske's Chess Monthly, launched when he was just twenty five years of age, was an outstanding periodical when first published between 1857 and 1861, probably the best in the English language up to that time, and for a long time thereafter; (John Keeble wrote in The British Chess Magazine in November 1931, page 496, "it is safe to say that [Fiske's] magazine remains to this day the most interesting thing of the kind ever issued"), and, 160 years later, it is still an extraordinarily interesting read for chess history and literature devotees. The Problem Department by E B Cook. This was one of the first magazines published in America. It was started in 1857 and lasted until 1861. It was published at the height of Morphy's popularity and presence.

Condition: Original wrappers bound in, lacks wrapper to number one, heal corner of title stained, some pages with old institutional embossed stamp, some occasional pencil notations else about very good.