Memorials of Mrs. John V. L. Pruyn

Albany (NY): (Privately printed, by Munsell), 1859. First edition, one of 131 copies (see Bib. Munselliana). 4to. 75 pp., 1 l. 2 engraved plates, one a frontispiece portrait; tissue guards. Tipped in at the front is a printed apology for the volume's late issue, dated February 1860; laid in is a leaflet reprinting a notice of the book from the Albany Atlas & Argus. Collected tributes to a well-educated woman, Harriet Corning Pruyn (1822-1859), lovingly remembered in an essay by the Rev. W. B. Sprague, a poem by Mrs. James Hall, and other pieces. As described here, her life exemplified a type of her era: daughter of a prominent family, appropriately wed, of fragile health, bereft of three of her five children, victim of the fifth birth. John V. L. Pruyn was a prominent lawyer, active as counsel for railroads and other companies; after Harriet's death, he served in both the New York legislature and U.S. Congress and as chancellor of the state university. Presentation inscription on a front fly leaf by Pruyn for the memorial poem's contributor, who is named not in the inscription but in gilt on the rear cover. Bibliotheca Munselliana, p. 99: 131 copies. Sabin 66415. Very faint foxing to the plates, binding rubbed, primarily along the front joint which is also chipped near the foot. But for the binding wear, a near fine copy of en elegant Munsell production. Full dark brown leather, beveled boards and raised bands, cover panels in blind, gilt titles on the spine and upper board, gilt owner's name on the lower cover, turn-ins gilt; a.e.g.; dark brown coated endpapers. (552). (Inventory #: 70187)