The Kossuth Offering and Family Souvenir: A Gift Book for All Seasons: 1852

New York: Mark H. Newman & Co, 1851. Hardcover. Good -. Sartain, John. iv, 241, [1] p., engraved frontispiece portrait of Kossuth and 15 leaves of engraved plates: music; 25 cm. Dark green cloth with gilt-stamped spine title and decoration; gilt-stamped portrait of Kossuth on front cover, with the same blind-stamped on back cover; blind-stamped decoration on both boards. All page edges gilt. Pale yellow endpapers. Gift inscription on front free endpaper: "From M. H. Bidwell Jany 1st 1852 to Thomas Hamilton." Faxon, Literary Annual and Gift Books, 428e. The extreme popularity of Hungarian statesman Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva (1802-1894), or Louis Kossuth, as he was known in English, is indicated by the publisher naming this literary annual for him. He had served as Hungary's president during the revolution of 1848-49; in 1851 he spent time in London before coming to the United States. He arrived in New York in Dec. 1851 (as this volume appeared) to a hero's welcome, including a visit to the White House with President Millard Fillmore. The volume includes: 5 plates engraved by John Sartain; 2 works by Metta Victoria Fuller (1831-1885): The City of Night, and The Wo-Prophet of Jerusalem; an engraving of the Crystal Palace; The Fear of Being an Old Maid by Mrs. E. H. Hall; and a biography of Kossuth. Very scarce. In Good- Condition: edges of spine and corners are rubbed; loss at ends of spine; cloth is separating along front joint; cloth is soiled and faded; front hinge is separating; old dampstain at lower corner of a few leaves; foxing throughout; otherwise, clean and solid.