CATTON Ohioana Libr Award & 3-vol Army of the Potomac

November 23, 2021

Rare Books, Documents, Photos, and Artwork

Lot 214

CATTON Ohioana Libr Award & 3-vol Army of the Potomac

Estimate: $120 - $180

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Bruce CATTON. - M.K. COOPER [Ohioana Library Award & 3-vol reprint of 'The Army of the Potomac']

Offered for sale by Adam Langlands of 'Shadowrock Rare Books' - for more information please contact him via email at adamlanglands@gmail.com

Bruce CATTON (1899-1978). - Martha Kinney COOPER (1874-1964). [Original award, medallion:] The Martha Kinnney Cooper Ohioana Library Award [in calligraphic manuscript:] Presented to Bruce Catton for “Mr. Lincoln’s Army” 1951. Circular blue and white porcelain medallion (3 1/2inch diameter), inset into the right side of a presentation folder, the left side with a calligraphic note on card (see above). The folder bound in blue morocco gilt with light purple satin lining.

[with:] Bruce CATTON. The Army of the Potomac. Mr. Lincoln’s Army; … The Army of the Potomac; … A Stillness at Appomattox. Garden City, NY: 1962. 3 volumes, octavo. Cloth-backed boards. Re-print.

A reprint of the Michigan-born author’s best known series, with one of the numerous awards that the series won. ‘In the early 1950s, Catton published three books known collectively as the Army of the Potomac trilogy, a history of that army. For Mr. Lincoln's Army (1951), the first volume, Catton recounted the army's formation, the command of George B. McClellan, the Peninsula Campaign, the Northern Virginia Campaign, and the Battle of Antietam. For the second volume, Glory Road (1952), Catton recounted the army's history with new commanding generals, from the Battle of Fredericksburg to the Battle of Gettysburg. For his final volume of the trilogy, A Stillness at Appomattox (1953), Catton recounted the campaigns of Ulysses S. Grant in Virginia from 1864 to the end of the war during 1865. It was his first commercially successful work and it won both the Pulitzer Prize for History and a National Book Award for Nonfiction’. (wikpedia)

‘In early 1929, … [Martha Kinney Cooper] moved into the governor’s mansion with her husband [who had been elected Ohio’s 51st governor] As she was unpacking, Kinney Cooper came across stacks of books and large bookshelves but realized that none of them were written by Ohio authors. This inspired her to establish the Ohioana Library Association, an organization with the goal to preserve Ohio's cultural heritage. Directed by Depew Head, the Martha Kinney Cooper Ohioana Library was created to specifically house the works of Ohioans. Kinney Cooper established relationships with various authors and interests groups to expand the library. Each spring, she would host a tea for Hamilton County authors at her Cincinnati home. She also developed a friendship with members of the National League of American Pen Women. One such member, Clara Heflebower, would go on to serve as secretary of the Ohioana Library committee. By the 1931, the library already held more than 600 volumes. As a non-profit, all the books were collected through the authors themselves. Ohio was the first state to found a library of the works of its own authors. She continued to enlist help from interest groups, such as the Ohio Federation of Women’s Clubs, to help her collect and file books written by Ohioans. As a result, the library outgrew its space in the governor’s mansion and was relocated to the State Library of Ohio. By January 2001, the library again relocated, this time to 274 E First Avenue. In 1942, the Ohioana Book Awards was established to honor Ohio authors in Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, and Juvenile Literature’ (wikipedia).

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