The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1955)

By Oliver Wendell Holmes
Published by The Limited Editions Club, New York, 1955

Hardcover.
Introduction by Van Wyck Brooks.
Illustrations by R.J. Holden.
Small 4to. Cream cloth over bevel-edged boards with gilt-lettered calf spine label and pictorial plate to front and rear boards, slipcase. xvi, 281pp. Numerous brown-tone line drawings. Spine (only) lightly age toned; mild slipcase wear.

Tight and handsome LEC edition of the second title in their 24th series. Interestingly subtitled, this fiction-like essay collection by the New England poet and physician (1809-94). At the back, colophon noting limitation of 1500 numbered copies (this #1429).
Signed boldly by illustrator Holden.
First published in book form in 1858.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (August 29, 1809 – October 7, 1894) was an American physician, poet, and polymath based in Boston. Grouped among the fireside poets, he was acclaimed by his peers as one of the best writers of the day. His most famous prose works are the "Breakfast-Table" series, which began with The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). He was also an important medical reformer. In addition to being an author and a poet, Holmes was also a physician, professor, lecturer, and inventor.

R750