UNCLE TOM'S CABIN: A Tale of Life among the Lowly

Philadelphia, Chicago, Toronto: John C. Winston & Co., 1897. New Edition. Hardcover. Good. Octavo; xiv, [iv], 680 pages, variant cover stamping showing Tom writing on a slate board, black inky stain on top third of cover, hinges repaired.

With 108 illustrations "By Celebrated Artists". [Hildreth, Stowe Bibliography, p.17]. Fifty thousand copies of this title sold in the first eight weeks! "The Lord Himself wrote it. I was but an instrument in His hand - H. B. Stowe." The original edition was five thousand copies, of which three thousand were sold the first day, and the remainder the second day -Downs, BOOKS THAT CHANGED AMERICA, 9." "On a single point only do the pro-and-con critics of UNCLE TOM'S CABIN agree. Without exception, all recognize the book's tremendous impact on its time - specifically, its immense influence in instigating the American Civil War -- Downs, FAMOUS BOOKS SINCE 1492, 77." "... the social impact of UNCLE TOM'S CABIN on the United States was greater than that of any book before or since - PRINTNG AND THE MIND OF MAN, 332." [ Grolier American One Hundred, 61 q.v ; Eicher THE CIVIL WAR IN BOOKS, 733]. See also 2012 exhibition at the Library of Congress: "Books That Shaped America". NOTE: The Winston Company claims that this edition, with these illustrations are "from Original Drawings made expressly for this edition" although Hildreth's bibliography cites three other 1897 editions with "Drawings by Celebrated Artists". One artist with multiple drawings here is Jenny Nystrom-Stoopendaal, the prolific Swedish painter whose illustrations here appeared earlier, in 1896, in a Swedish edition of ONKEL TOM'S STUGA.