Oddities of the Law

Soule and Bugbee, 1881-01-01. First Edition. Hardcover. Good. 1881 signed first edition, Soule and Bugbee (Boston, Massachusetts), 5 x 7 1/8 in ches tall brown cloth hardcover, no dust jacket, gilt lettering to spine, [4], 192 pp. Moderate soiling, rubbing and edgewear to covers. Spine very slightly cocked, and cloth spine cover is rather significantly creased. Tipped onto the front pastedown, signed note on an 1881 postcard from the author telling the prior owner that the publisher would be sending along this volume. Prior owner's name and date (November 1881) to blank front free-endpaper. A handful of pages with slight marginal staining. Erased marginal pencil notations to the last page in the volume. Otherwise, apart from slight age toning, an uncommon first edition copy of this work. ~SP29~ [1.5P] An American nineteenth century jurist's collection of wit and bloopers from the courtrooms, using a wide variety of sources. Franklin Fiske Heard (1825-1889), Harvard Law 1858, studied law in the office of Chief-Justice Prentiss Mellen, and was admitted to the bar in 1850. After practicing for five years in Middlesex county, he removed to Boston, and acquired a reputation as an authority on pleading. From 1861 till 1866 he was associated with George P. Sawyer in the editorship of the 'Monthly Law Reporter.' He revised Davis's 'Criminal Justice' (Boston, 1853); prepared, with the assistance of Charles R. Train, a standard work on 'Precedents of Indictments, Special Pleas, etc., Adapted to American Practice' (1855); contributed to the third edition of 'Greenleaf on Evidence' the chapter on criminal law (1856); and published, in conjunction with Edmund H. Bennett, 'A Selection of Leading Cases in Criminal Law' (1856). Heard published many other law books, including 'Heard on Criminal Law' (2d ed. 1882). In addition to this volume, Heard contributed to general literature an edition of Bacon's 'Essays' (Boston, 1867); 'Curiosities of the Law Reporters' (1871); and 'Shakespeare as a Lawyer' (1883).