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Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address—The First Appearance in Book Form |
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“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal…”
This rare first book printing of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address corresponds almost exactly to the speech as transcribed by Associated Press reporter Joseph I. Gilbert. Though there is no definitive text of the speech as Lincoln delivered it, Lincoln himself used Gilbert’s version when he penned a fair copy to sell at the Sanitary Fair.
[ABRAHAM LINCOLN].
An Oration delivered on The Battlefield of Gettysburg, (November 19, 1863,) at the Consecration of the Cemetery Prepared for the Interment of the Remains of Those Who Fell in the Battles of July 1st, 2d, and 3d, 1863. By Edward Everett. To which is added Interesting Reports of the Dedicatory Ceremonies; Descriptions of the Battlefield; Incidents and Details of the Battle, &c.” New York: Baker & Godwin, 1863. 48 pp., 6 x 9 in.
Inventory #27918.99
Price: $22,000
Edward Everett, the most famous orator of his day, spoke for an hour and a half. His speech, printed in full, takes up most of this volume. It is followed by a plan of the cemetery on page 32, and Lincoln’s address on pages 40 and 41, concluding with the reports on the day’s ceremonies from three New York newspapers.
The dedication ceremony and addresses took place on November 19, 1863. Many newspapers, particularly in New York, received the text by telegraph and printed it the next day. The first separate printing, a 16-page pamphlet entitled The Gettysburg Solemnities, was published by the Washington Chronicle on November 22; only three or four copies are known to survive. This first book printing was issued on November 25, just six days after the address was delivered. The publishers advertised it in that day's New York Tribune as “ready this morning.”
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. (Applause.) Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We are met to dedicate a portion of it as the final resting place of those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. (Applause.) The world will little note nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. (Applause.) It isfor us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the refinished work that they have thus so far nobly carried on. (Applause.) It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion: that we here highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain (applause): that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that governments of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. (Long-continuous applause.)”
Condition: original printed front wrapper, lacking rear wrapper, moderate wear and foxing.
