R.E. Lee: A Biography by FREEMAN, Douglas Southall - 1934

New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1934. Hardcover. Complete 4-volume set. Small 4to. Red cloth with gilt lettering. xviii, 647pp; xi, 621pp; xi, 559pp; viii, 594pp. Frontispieces, illustrations, maps (one folding). Very good. Mild binding edgewear and spines faintly sunned, else internally fine and tight; ownership signature on front flyleaves. Handsome set of Freeman's great quartette -- Volumes I and II are early printings, Volumes III and IV are first editions. Choice autograph addition: Tipped to front flyleaf of first volume is a nice content folded Typed Letter Signed from Freeman, 1p, 8½" X 11", Richmond, VA, 3 July 1952. Addressed to Carl Haverlin (1899-1985), a noted Lincoln/Civil War scholar and radio broadcast pioneer, president of music licensing innovator BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.). Very good. On imprinted letterhead, Freeman commends this New York Civil War Round Table officer. In part: "I congratulate you on your fine work as president of the Civil War Round Table in New York, and I wish very much I might have been able to contribute a finished text for publication and distribution among your members. The plain truth is, I speak so differently from the way I write that when I have to take a manuscript of a speech and turn it into prose to be read rather than heard, I have, in effect, to rewrite it. This involves more labor than I am able to perform. It is for this reason, primarily, that I stipulate, when I think of it in advance, that I shall not be called upon to revise the text of speeches...." Boldly signed with his usual lovely miniscule signature in black ink. A sharp set with a great author letter.