Description
Signed by Learned Hand, the first edition of The Spirit of Liberty: Papers and Addresses of Learned Hand by Irving Dilliard. A presentation copy from Whitney North Seymour, Sr.
Octavo, xxx, 262pp, [2]. Blue cloth spine, gray paper boards, title printed on spine, illustration stamped on front cover. Stated “first edition” on copyright page. Gift inscription on front free endpaper from Whitney North Seymour to a member of the New York Bar Association. Housed in custom blue cloth clamshell. In the publisher’s scarce first state dust jacket, with $3.50 on front flap and no mention of later editions on front cover. Jacket has some wear to panels, fold along bottom edge, front hinge reattached with archival repair, a scarce jacket in this condition.
Signed on the frontispiece portrait by Learned Hand.
Learned Hand (1872-1961) served for fifty-two years as a federal judge, first as a trial judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (1909-1924), then as an appellate judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (1924-1961). Following his death in 1961, he was remembered as “the greatest jurist of his time” by The New York Times. By 2004, Hand’s judicial opinions were quoted by members of the U.S. Supreme Court more than any other lower-court judge.
Whitney North Seymour, Sr. (1901-1983) served as assistant solicitor general during the Hoover Administration and later as the 84th president of the American Bar Association. This copy was inscribed by Seymour in 1952, during his time as president of the New York Bar Association.
