M & S Rare Books

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Inscribed by the Publisher

 

DOUGLASS, FREDERICK. My Bondage and My Freedom. Part I.--Life as a Slave. Part II.--Life as a Freeman. With an Introduction. By Dr. James M'Cune Smith. New York and Auburn: Miller, Orton & Mulligan, 1855. 1st ed. 8vo. 464 pp. Frontis. of Douglass and two other plates. Orig. cloth, quite worn. Inner front hinge cracking & weak. Slightly shaken. $550.00

 

LCP/HSP Afro-Americana Catalogue, 3233 (calling for only two plates). Blockson, A Commented Bibliography, 27 (1845 edition): "The narrative was expanded into My Bondage and My Freedom in 1855..."

With a contemporary ink presentation inscription on the free front endpaper to "Abner Bates. Syracuse. Regards of N.C. Miller." An old note laid in, describing Miller as a bookbinder in New York City, indicates that Bates and Miller were related. However, more importantly, our N.C. Miller was doubtless the one-time partner of publisher J.C. Derby of Auburn, New York. Derby began publishing under his own name in 1840, but in 1848 the firm became Derby and Miller. By 1853 Derby had left for New York City, and in 1855 was publishing there as Derby and Jackson. At this point in time Miller, as the senior member of Miller, Orton & Mulligan, published the second autobiography of Frederick Douglass. According to Lehmann-Haupt (The Book in America, 227n), by 1862 the firm of Derby and Miller would reemerge.

"Meanwhile, the Auburn firm he had founded continued under various reorganizations, and in the 60's, Derby and his former partner, Norman C. Miller, were again united for a time in the publication of books. As late as 1891, the two old colleagues organized one last time to bring out an appropriate reminder of their early career--the Autobiography of William Henry Seward." --Stern, Books and Book People in 19th Century America, 14.