Personal Reminiscences of a Maryland Soldier in the War between the States, 1861-1865
Baltimore: Press of Fleet, McGinley & Co., 1898. Hard Cover. Very Good+ binding. Item #10826
Octavo. 177 pp. First edition. Limited to 125 copies. Signed and inscribed by Booth on the first blank. As issued, in publisher's red cloth with title in gold on the front cover. A bright copy with very light soiling to the cover; early and short bookseller's description pasted to the bottom of the front pastedown; trivial closed tears to the fore-edge of the first page else clean and sharp.
Coulter notes that this is more reliable that many of the longer narratives written well after the war because Booth is scrupulous about not including information he couldn't possibly have remembered after so many years (Coulter 46). Nevins notes, "Written by a young solider who participated in many battled before his capture, this work contains so much on affairs both on and behind the lines that it is deserving of republication" CWB I, 61. It was eventually reprinted by Butternut Press in the 1980s. This copy signed and warmly inscribed by Booth to Wm. H. Fitzgerald who was in the 12th Virginia until he was wounded in action at the Battle of Malvern Hill in 1862. Fitzgerald was born in Maryland and lived in Baltimore for several decades after the war. This book is remarkably uncommon in commerce, particularly in this condition. Howes B-613; Dornbusch II, 529.
Price: $2,400.00