[LINCOLN] First Edition Elizabeth Keckley's Autobiography

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Day 2: Early & Historic Americana

By Fleischer's Auctions

Oct 10, 2025

Set Reminder 2025-10-10 09:00:00 2025-10-10 09:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Day 2: Early & Historic Americana https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/fleischers-auctions/day-2-early-historic-americana-19250
Day one of Fleischer's 2025 Fall Premier auction includes early American artifacts, documents, signatures, ephemera, and weaponry. Rare material relating to African American history is featured, as well as fine examples of antique photography. Fleischer's Auctions info@fleischersauctions.com

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• Lot Description

  Note: Please see Day 3 (October 11) of the sale that features rare material relating to the Gettysburg Address.

   

  Elizabeth Keckley. Behind the Scenes. Or, Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House. New York: G.W. Carleton & Co., 1868. 

   

  12mo, 371 +8 pp. ads. Frontispiece portrait. Original tan cloth. FIRST EDITION. Howes K-21; LCP, Afro-Americana 5454; Sabin 37141.

   

  An important autobiography of Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley (1818-1907) who, though born into slavery, became the dressmaker and personal confidant of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln. 

   

  The intimate narrative, which published her personal correspondence with the First Lady, was controversial at the time as most readers considered it a flagrant violation of the expected norms of discretion and privacy. What was scandalous to the Reconstruction Era public, however, is invaluable insight into the life of a free Black woman, the personal life of Mary Todd Lincoln, and the Lincoln White House for modern historians. 

   

  [African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation] [Pamphlets, Publications, Ephemera, Books, Rare Books, Tracts]

  Condition

  Request Condition Report

  Fading to boards, wear to extremities, slightly leaned. 

• Provenance

  John Needles Chester (illustrated bookplate to interior front board)

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