This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/24/2025
[TRUE CRIME]. Group of 4 First Editions in 5 Volumes. [V.p., 19th – 20th centuries]. 8vos. 4 titles in original publisher's binding (one in wrappers), 1 title in contemporary leather. Some general wear, soiling, joints cracking, ownership markings, wrappers are loose. Generally good or better. Titles include: Testimony of the Forrest Divorce Case (in the rare wrappers), Case of Catharine N. Forrest… Against Edwin Forrest… (2 volumes in contemporary leather), Prison Life and Reflections or a Narrative of the Arrest Trial Conviction… of Work, Burr, and Thompson… (cloth), The Great Harry Thaw Case or a Woman's Sacrifice (cloth). The Forrest divorce was a mid-19th century scandal of a married couple of actors divorcing due to the Edwin Forrest's infidelity – and his counter-charges of infidelity against his wife, Catharine. The Prison Life…, the pre-civil war title is by one of the prisoners, whose crime involved helping slaves to escape to the North. The Harry Thaw title is about the early 20th century scandal involving Thaw's murder of architect Stanford White (White had had a sexual relationship with Thaw's wife, Evelyn Nesbit, before she married Thaw – Thaw had a history of mental illness); this scandal was the subject of E. L. Doctorow's novel, Ragtime (1975 – later a film, 1981, directed by Milos Forman).