From the New Owner of the HarvardUniversity Bookstore to His Former Boss

BARTLETT, JOHN. (1820-1905). American publisher known chiefly for his eponymous compendium of well-known phrases, Familiar Quotations. A copy of the fourth edition of his Familiar Quotations inscribed (“with the regards of John Bartlett”) to his former boss at the Harvard University Bookstore, GEORGE NICHOLS (1809-1882), a Harvard graduate and librarian who bought the Harvard University Press in 1833 and the bookstore in 1847. Nichols edited the papers of Edmund Burke (cited in this edition of Familiar Quotations) and Charles Sumner. 480pp. 8vo. N.p., N.d. (1863). Bartlett, an independent publisher in Cambridge, worked for Nichols at the store and took over ownership in 1849. The Harvard bookstore as the DAB reports, “…grew to be the meeting place for Harvard professors and students who cared for books. ‘Ask John Bartlett’ was the customary advice when anyone had difficulty in finding a book or a quotation, and Bartlett was so anxious to deserve his reputation that he began keeping a commonplace-book, which was the embryo of his famous Familiar Quotations,” first issued in 1855. Bartlett joined Boston’s Little, Brown company, who published their first edition of Familiar Quotations (the present 4^th edition) in 1863 and who continue to publish it to this day. Discoloration on front and back pastedowns and some pages are loose. Tears along upper and lower edges of spine but still intact. Darkly inscribed and in good condition. Rare in signed copies, particularly from this early edition and with this association.

Item #12955