The Olivia Letters; Being Some History of Washington City for Forty Years as Told by the Letters of a Newspaper Correspondent (Signed)
New York and Washington: The Neale Publishing Company, 1906. First edition. Tissue-guarded frontispiece photographic portrait. Cloth over boards. Octavo. 445 pages. Very good. Bound in dark blue cloth over boards with gilt-stamped upper board titles, top edge gilt. Titling on spine is completely darkened.
This scarce book gives a fascinating look at the local history of Washington, DC and the flavor of national events in the capital in the early post-Civil War era.
Emily Edson Briggs, writing under the pseudonym "Olivia," was one of the first women to garner a national reputation as a journalist.
There are 83 dispatches included here, the earliest from early 1866 and the last from 1882. They cover events such as attempts to gain pardon for the Lincoln conspirators held in the Dry Tortugas, the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson, Grant's inauguration, and numerous other letters featuring politics, society, and even architecture.
There is material on African Americans in Congress and on the movement for women's suffrage.
Ref. KRICK 53.
Item #787
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