Description:

Fillmore Millard

Millard Fillmore Religious Content Fantastic Presentation to Wife "Read the Holy Grail which seems to me like the disjointed visions of an opium eater ending in nothing"

 

The Holy Grail and Other Poems by Alfred Tennyson. Fields, Osgood, & Co., 1870. First printing with date on the title page and no other dates listed. 4.75" x 7.25", 202 pages. Original end papers including a large, lovely presentation inscription by Millard Fillmore of "Presented to /Mrs. Millard Fillmore/ By her husband/ Jany 4, 1870" which includes his signature within the inscription as "Millard Fillmore". Signed and inscribed a second time on the title page; "Mrs. Millard Fillmore, Jany 4, 1870" and additionally includes a fantastic hand written note by Fillmore on the verso of page 86 (see below). Book in very good condition with light wear to the spine ends. Library sticker to the spine, and probable library identification number to the title page.

 

 

Millard Fillmore was a lover of books since boyhood.  By the time he was a little more than middle age, his library differed little from those found in families which had received books from predecessors of wealth and education. Yet as a child, Fillmore was born into a poor family and was an indentured servant in farming, accounting, chopping wood for lumber and making cloth, he'd been unable to even have a continuous education. With a thirst for knowledge and a growing awareness of his comprehensive deficiencies, Fillmore read voraciously - using a dictionary to learn the meaning of words he didn't understand.

 

Fillmore was obsessed with educating himself, and read every book he could find. Teaching himself to read, he sometimes stole books, as he could not afford to buy them. Still obsessed with his education, he attended school in a nearby town, and his teacher, Abigail Powers, encouraged his studies. In time, she became the most influential and trusted person in his life. At this time she was 19 years old, not quite two years older than Millard. His poverty and discipline for self-knowledge mirrored Abigail's own experience and ambition. She helped him learn with precision, and on subjects where they both lacked knowledge, they studied together. Abruptly separated when his family moved, Fillmore later realized he had been "unconsciously stimulated by the companionship" of his teacher. Too poor to visit Abigail Powers, they did not see each other for three years but kept in touch by letter. In the interim, he apprenticed to a lawyer, began to teach professionally in the city of Buffalo, and was able to begin a law practice in the nearby town of present-day East Aurora across the street from which he built a home to share with his new wife. When Millard Fillmore went to the state capital in Albany, New York to serve a term in the state legislature, his wife stayed behind and began to purchase books of literature, poetry and the classics to build upon his collection of law books at home, the core of what would become their personal library of over four-thousand titles. Two years later, Millard Fillmore returned to practice law in Buffalo, to which they moved from East Aurora. Together, the Fillmores established a lending library and college in the city.

 

It is interesting to note that when Fillmore became President, the Executive Mansion did not contain books, not even a Bible, and again the Fillmore's were instrumental in obtaining the funding and the building of the Executive Mansion library during his term as President.

 

Fillmore's devotion and love for books continued throughout his entire life. Five years after the death of his first wife, Abigail, Fillmore remarried Caroline Carmichael McIntosh, and resumed collecting books and gifting them to Caroline. Offered here is one of the books which Millard Fillmore presented to Caroline, with the entire presentation inscription in his hand, which in effect also contains his autograph within the inscription of:

 

"Presented to

Mrs. Millard Fillmore

By her husband

Jany 4, 1870"

 

In addition, Millard Fillmore inscribed her name and date presented on the title page of the book, and included his hand written musing on the verso of page 86 of: "Jany 30, 70 - Read the Holy Grail which seems to me like the disjointed visions of an opium eater ending in nothing - M.F. "

 

An incredible and important book presented by this President, who not only loved books, but self-taught his education through his books, and then brought his love as the creator of multiple libraries including the Executive Mansion. The importance of his books cannot be overstated, with this one coming from the collection of Caroline Carmichael McIntosh Fillmore.

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May 15, 2019 10:30 AM EDT
Wilton, CT, US

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