Biography and Autobiography
Rare Biography & Autobiography Books for Sale Online
If you are looking for rare or first edition biography or autobiography books look no further than Raptis Rare Books. Browse through our entire collection of rare biographies and autobiographies below, view details about individual books and contact us to ask a question or find out more information.
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“I feel safe in the midst of my enemies, for the truth is all powerful and will prevail": First revised edition of Narrative of Sojourner Truth and first edition of The Book of Life
TRUTH, Sojourner.
Narrative of Sojourner Truth, A Northern Slave, Emancipated From Bodily Servitude by the State of New York, in 1828 and The Book of Life.
Boston: Published By The Author, 1875.
Rare first revised edition of the book that brought Truth's remarkable story to the world and the first edition of The Book of Life. Octavo, original cloth, gilt titles to the spine, illustrated frontispiece portrait of Truth. In very good condition, contemporary ownership inscription on front free endpaper. Rare and desirable.
Price: $15,000.00 Item Number: 133297
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“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety": Rare First Edition of Benjamin Franklin's Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces
FRANKLIN, Benjamin.
Political, Miscellaneous, and Philosophical Pieces; Arranged under the Following Heads and Distinguished by Initial Letters in each Leaf: General Politics; American Politics before the Troubles; American Politics during the Troubles; Provincial or Colony Politics; Miscellaneous and Philosophical Pieces.
London: Printed for J. Johnson, 1779.
First edition of "the only edition of Franklin's writings (other than his scientific) printed during his lifetime" (Ford). Octavo, bound half diced calf over marbled boards with elaborate gilt tooling to the spine, red morocco spine label lettered in gilt. With the engraved frontispiece portrait of Franklin, three engraved plates (one folding), and folding table of the reformed alphabet. In near fine condition. Complete with index, addenda and corrigenda. An exceptional example.
Price: $15,000.00 Item Number: 125035
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"As you may have seen by the newspapers, I am about to raise a Coloured Regiment in Massachusetts. This I cannot but regard as perhaps the most important corps to be organized during the whole war": First edition of Robert Gould Shaw's Memorial
[SHAW, Robert Gould; Ralph Waldo Emerson; Harriet Beecher Stowe; James Russell Lowell; et al].
Memorial.
Cambridge: University Press, 1864.
First edition of this scarce volume dedicated to the commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, Robert Gould Shaw, with contributions by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Lloyd Garrison, Edwin M. Stanton, and James Russell Lowell and with extracts from Colonel Shaw's letters. Octavo, original publisher's half leather over red boards with gilt titles to the spine, tipped in tissue-guarded oval carte-de-visite frontispiece of Shaw. In very good condition. Scarce, with only a handful of copies having appeared at auction in the last century.
Price: $9,500.00 Item Number: 126433
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Signed Limited Editions Of President Eisenhowers Mandate For Change and The White House Years: Waging Peace 1956-1961; both volumes inscribed by Eisenhower to his Secretary of Defense Thomas S. Gates, Jr.
EISENHOWER, Dwight D.
The White House Years: Mandate for Change 1953-1956 and The White House Years: Waging Peace 1956-1961.
Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1963-65.
Signed limited first editions of Eisenhower's memoirs, each one of 1500 copies. Thick Octavo, two volumes, original tan cloth with green morocco spine labels lettered in gilt, cartographic endpapers. One of 1500 numbered copies signed by the author. Association copy, Waging Peace is an Advance presentation copy, inscribed by Eisenhower to Secretary of Defense, Thomas S. Gates, Jr., "Devotedly Dwight D. Eisenhower" on an Eisenhower Farm, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania bookplate. The recipient, Thomas S. Gates is mentioned numerous times in both of these volumes. "To replace Neil McElroy as Secretary of Defense I prevailed on Secretary of the Navy Tom Gates to delay…
Price: $8,800.00 Item Number: 133263
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"Thine is the victory without the battle- the crown without the conflict": Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin Uncle Tom's Cabin; Lengthily signed by her
STOWE, Harriet Beecher.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Or, Life Among the Lowly and A Key to Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1892.
Finely bound example of the author's classic work. Octavo, bound in full morocco, gilt titles to the spine, raised bands, gilt ruled to the front and rear panels, top edge gilt, volume with title vignettes and six wood-engravings. Lengthily signed by the author as follows, "There is no death to such as thou dear Eva, neither darkness nor shadow of death. Thine is the victory without the battle- the crown without the conflict Uncle Tom's Cabin Chap 24 Harriet Beecher Stowe April 17 1893." In near fine condition. A unique example.
Price: $8,800.00 Item Number: 117857
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First Edition, First Issue of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin
STOWE, Harriet Beecher.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin; Or, Life Among the Lowly.
Boston: John P. Jewett & Company. Cleveland: Jewett, Proctor & Worthington, 1852.
First edition, first issue of Stowe's classic American novel, widely considered the book that precipitated the American Civil War. Octavo, two volumes in the original publisher's cloth stamped in blind with gilt titles and vignettes to the front panels, illustrated with title vignettes and six wood-engravings. BAL's binding B (no priority). Portrait of Stowe tipped in opposite the title page of volume I. In very good condition.
Price: $7,500.00 Item Number: 142642
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First Quarto edition of Washington Irving's Monumental The Life of George Washington
IRVING, Washington.
The Life of George Washington.
New York: G. P. Putnam & Co., 1855-59.
First edition of Irving's monumental biography of George Washington. Quarto, bound in half crushed red levant with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, top edge gilt, marbled endpapers, illustrated with 47 hand-colored plates including tissue-guarded frontispiece to each volume. One of one hundred and ten numbered copies of the quarto edition, this is number forty-five. In near fine condition. An attractive example of this rare work.
Price: $6,500.00 Item Number: 129307
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The Autobiography of Abraham Lincoln; Finely BOUND IN FULL CRUSHED LEVANT MOROCCO IN AN ELABORATE COSWAY-STYLE BINDING
STEPHENSON, Nathaniel Wright. [Abraham Lincoln].
An Autobiography of Abraham Lincoln: Consisting of his Letters Speeches and Conversations.
London: Andrew Melrose, 1926.
First edition of Stephenson's appreciation of the great American President. Octavo, bound in full crushed levant morocco in an elaborate Cosway-style binding with a hand painted miniature ivorene portrait of Lincoln under glass to the front panel within an elaborate gilt vignette, double gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, gilt-ruled turn-ins and inner dentelles, all edges gilt, watered silk endleaves, illustrated, tissue-guarded engraved frontispiece. In fine condition. An exceptional presentation.
Price: $6,000.00 Item Number: 138601
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“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark": The Patriot's Edition of The Life and Works of Thomas Paine
PAINE, Thomas.
The Life and Works of Thomas Paine.
New Rochelle, New York: Thomas Paine National Historical Association, 1925.
The Patriot's edition of the Life and Works of Thomas Paine. Octavo, ten volumes bound in three quarter morocco with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in five compartments within raised gilt bands, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt. In good condition.
Price: $5,500.00 Item Number: 138611
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“The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for”: The complete writings of George Washington; Finely Bound
WASHINGTON, George; Jared Sparks.
The Writings of George Washington Being His Correspondence, Addresses, Messages, and Other Papers, Official and Private.
New York: Harper and Brothers, 1848-52.
The complete writings of George Washington. Octavo, 12 volumes, uniformly bound in full three quarters calf, morocco spine labels, illustrated. Editor Jared Sparks was a noted early American historian and President of Harvard College. Sparks worked as editor of the North American Review and a Unitarian pastor in Baltimore. Sparks' most notable work was his Writings of George Washington. He was an important early American Antiquarian and influential in his historical scholarship on the new nation. In very good condition.
Price: $3,200.00 Item Number: 141401
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First Edition of Orville J. Victor's The History, Civil, Political & Military of the Southern Rebellion
VICTOR, Orville J.
The History, Civil, Political & Military of the Southern Rebellion, From its Incipient Stages to its Close.
New York: James D. Torrey, Publisher, [1861].
Complete first edition set of one of the earliest histories of the American Civil War. Octavo, four volumes, original publisher's full pebbled morocco decorated in gilt, marbled endpapers, all edges marbled, illustrated with steel engraved plates, additional vignette title pages. frontispieces, and maps. In good condition. A rare complete set, we have never seen another one.
Price: $2,800.00 Item Number: 133063
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The National Edition of The Works of Theodore Roosevelt; In the Rare Original Dust Jackets
ROOSEVELT, Theodore.
The Works of Theodore Roosevelt.
New York : Charles Scribner's Sons, 1926.
The National edition of the works of Theodore Roosevelt. Octavo, 20 volumes, original green cloth with printed paper spine labels, top edge gilt. The set includes, The Naval War of 1812 in two volumes, The Wilderness Hunter, American Ideals in 2 volumes , The Winning of the West in six volumes, Hunting the Grizzly, Hunting Trips on the Prairie and in the Mountains, and Hunting Trips of A Ranchman. Fine in near fine dust jackets. An exceptional set, rare in the original dust jackets and in this condition.
Price: $2,500.00 Item Number: 144229
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"There are but few important events in the affairs of men brought about by their own choice": First Edition of Grants Memoirs; Finely Bound by The Harcourt Bindery
GRANT, Ulysses S. [U.S.].
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant.
New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1885-86.
First edition of the autobiography of Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States, which focusing mainly on his military career during the Mexican War and the Civil War. Octavo, 2 volumes, bound in full morocco by the Harcourt Bindery, gilt titles and ruling to the spine, raised bands, gilt ruled to the front and rear panels, gilt signature to the front panel of each volume, inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. In near fine condition. An exceptional presentation.
Price: $2,000.00 Item Number: 145765
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"There are but few important events in the affairs of men brought about by their own choice": First Edition of Grants Memoirs
GRANT, Ulysses S. [U.S.].
Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant.
New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1885-86.
First edition of the autobiography of Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States, which focusing mainly on his military career during the Mexican War and the Civil War. Octavo, 2 volumes, original green cloth with title and front panel in gilt, illustrated with numerous steel engravings, facsimiles, and 43 maps. In near fine condition. An exceptional example.
Price: $1,600.00 Item Number: 134188
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"It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom": MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.'S STRIDE TOWARD FREEDOM: THE MONTGOMERY STORY; BOUND IN FULL MOROCCO BY THE HARCOURT BINDERY
KING, Jr..
Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story.
New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1958.
First edition, early printing of Dr. Martin Luther King’s first book. Octavo, bound in full morocco by the Harcourt Bindery with gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, gilt ruling to the front and rear panels, gilt inner dentelles stamp-signed by the Harcourt Bindery, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. In fine condition.
Price: $1,400.00 Item Number: 142687
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First edition of James Ford Rhodes' The McKinley and Roosevelt Administrations 1897-1909; finely bound in full morocco by Zaehnsdorf
RHODES, James Ford [William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt].
The McKinley and Roosevelt Administrations 1897-1909.
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922.
First edition of Rhodes' authoritative work on the McKinley and Roosevelt Administrations. Octavo, bound in full morocco by Zaehnsdorf, gilt titles and ruling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, gilt turn-ins and inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt, illustrated. In fine condition.
Price: $975.00 Item Number: 139557