The Adams Family by ADAMS, James Truslow - 1930

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1930. Hardcover. Small 4to. Half blue calf with raised bands and gilt spine lettering and light blue cloth. xi, 364pp. Top edge gilt. Frontispiece, illustrations, blue textured endpapers. Near fine. Handsome first edition in custom binding of this account of John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Charles Francis Adams and other distinguished Adamses -- of which author James Truslow Adams claims no connection! This choice copy also bears a fine autograph addition: Tipped to the inner flyleaf is a Typed Note Signed from the author, 1p, 8½" X 5½", Southport, CT, 24 October 1939. Addressed to future notable Lincoln scholar Arnold F. Gates (1914-93). On his personal letterhead, Adams notes, "Thank you very much for your very kind note congratulating me on my birthday on the 18th and for the very pleasant things which you have said about enjoying my work." Signed boldly in full in brown ink. Adams (1878-1949) was a popular, non-university-connected American historian awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his 1921 "The Founding of New England" and is often remembered for coining "The American Dream" in his 1931 work "The Epic of America." A sharp and unusual copy with original letter.