Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1869 novel of small-town New England life, in a first edition

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) is frozen in time: everyone knows her name, and everyone knows she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and no one has ever read it.

But Stowe, daughter of a prominent New England family, was much for than the one book, however well it sold and influential it was. She wrote 30 books in all, ranging from novels to travel books to collections of essays and articles. Henry Bemis celebrates her works with this “near-classic” of her later years, and an early example of regional fiction:

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Oldtown Folks (Boston: Fields, Osgood and Co., 1869). First edition. Hardcover. Good. 5 x 8 in. Green cloth boards with blindstamp decoration (a blindstamp is a stamped impression, usually an image, logo, words, or design on the cover or spine of a book, without color or other decoration.  Sometimes also indicated with the phrase "stamped in blind," "blind" refers to the lack of ink, foil, or other distinguishing coloring.  Older books often have quite decorative designs embossed into their covers in this way, a is the case with this one). HBB price $20.

Michelle Fry of Librivox writes,

1870's rural Massachusetts communities became famous as “Oldtown” in Harriet Beecher Stowe's 7th novel and a national bestseller. Based partially on her husband Rev. Calvin Stowe's childhood memories and other old-timers' recollections, this story of growing up in rural New England just after the American Revolution is one of the earliest examples of local color writing in New England. Young Horace Holyoke, the novel's narrator, describes life during the early Federalist years, capturing its many rich ideas, customs, and family lore. Villagers wrestle with loyalties to the fledgling government, and with the new secular rationalism provoked by the young nation’s Founders. Clashes between Puritanism, Calvinism, and Arminianism abound. This book helped with the depreciation of Calvinism in that time.

The book's condition is good. The back side of the spine has a tear, and the paper cover over the front spine at the endpapers has worked through. The binding has held up well, though some signatures protrude slightly. Text block is yellowed a bit.

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