The Land of the Veda (1872) :: rare illustrated First Edition

Born in 1818 in Dublin, Rev. William Butler was a pioneering missionary who preached in the USA in the early 1850s following which he travelled to India. During his extensive stay in India from 1856 to 1865, he witnessed some of the most important events in Indian history including the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 and the Siege of Cawnpore. A few weeks after he commenced his missionary work in Bareilly, he was forced to escape to Nainital when his home in Bareilly was burnt and his life was in danger.

We are now pleased to offer an extremely rare, antiquarian, illustrated First Edition of Rev. William Butler's personal reminiscences of India. First published in New York in 1872, The Land of the Veda was one of the most comprehensive books on nineteenth-century India from the perspective of a western missionary worker. Being one of the most influential books of the time, it went through numerous reprints over several years. This First Edition was enriched with over 40 lithographic illustrations and a superlative lithographic map.

Several images of this precious rarity, including the exhaustive table of contents and the complete list of illustrations, are attached herewith for the perusal of those interested.

THE LAND OF THE VEDA — PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF INDIA

Author: Rev. William Butler, D.D.

Engravings & Lithographs by: Russell Richardson, JC Buttre, Felter SC, R. Hinshelwood, C. Grindlay

Map lithograph by: George W. Averell

Publisher: Carlton & Lanahan, New York, 1872 — Extremely Rare Antiquarian First Edition

Copyright registered in the year: 1871, under the Act of Congress in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, Washington

Format: Green hardcovers. Gilt-tooled image on the front cover, the same image is blind-stamped on the rear cover; images attached. The top edge of the text block is gilt-edged; image attached.

Size: 25 cm x 18 cm x 4.1 cm — This is a heavy book weighing 1.6 kg.

Pages: 1 frontispiece with tissue guard + 1 map + 550 pages (including 42 lithographic plates, of which 4 are with tissue guards). Printed on high-grade paper.

Condition of the pages: Pre-Owned. Pristine — Near Immaculate. Pages clean and unmarked. Original tight binding. Very slight, natural foxing/yellowing of some pages owing to age.

Condition of the covers: Excellent — Near Pristine. The original green hardcovers with gilt tooling are completely intact. Minor shelf-wear/fading near the corners/edges. The covers are neatly wrapped in an acetate film for future protection.

Inscription & Label: The initial blank page bears a pencilled signature of the first owner of this book — H. W. Corbett (Henry Winslow Corbett), a prominent American businessman, politician & philanthropist of the nineteenth century; please refer to the penultimate image. Eventually, this book arrived in the princely state of Kutch whose label depicting the coat of arms is affixed on the rear side of the front cover; please refer to the last image.

Remarks: Painstakingly sourced, this true First Edition is immensely rare and hard to find, let alone in such exemplary condition as the one we are offering now. The value of this particular book that we are offering lies in its extreme rarity for being the very First Edition that was originally published in New York in 1872, and for its exemplary condition with all the lithographic plates intact.

Note on the First Edition year & the Copyright year: The true First Edition of this book was published in New York in 1872. In some sources, the publication year of the First Edition is wrongly mentioned as 1871. The reason for the dissemination of this error can be deduced from the fact that the author's initial manuscript was copyrighted by the publisher in the year 1871; please refer to the eighth image attached herewith. The American Copyright Act of 1870 centralized copyright registration in the Library of Congress. After the copyright of this book was registered in 1871, the actual publication of the First Edition took place the following year in 1872. Several references in this book, including the  statistical tables (image attached) that commence from 1872, are also indicative of the First Edition going to press in 1872.

Copyright & Reprint History: In 1871, the copyright was registered by the original publisher Carlton & Lanahan, who published the true First Edition in 1872. Four reprint editions were published by Carlton & Lanahan in 1872 itself; in each instance, the number of the reprint edition was mentioned on the title page. Thereafter, the copyright for subsequent reprints was passed to the following publishers: Nelson & Phillips (1873 – 75), Phillips & Hunt (1876 – 1893), Hunt & Eaton (1894 – 1905), and Eaton & Mains (1906).

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