Book - Napoleon's Elba
Bushnell Smith, Lydia. Napoleon's Elba. Florence Successori B. Seeber 20, Via Tornabuoni [Verso: 1914 - Florence - Printed by the Tipografia Giuntina, directed by L. Franceschini.]
1914 (Date published)
Bushnell Smith, Lydia. Napoleon's Elba. Florence: Successori B. Seeber 20, Via Tornabuoni [Verso: 1914 - Florence - Printed by the Tipografia Giuntina, directed by L. Franceschini.]
Small 4to (176 x 148mm), pp. 99, [1], with photographic plates. Bound in original publisher's stiff paper wrappers, upper wrapper printed in black and red. Postcards with early ink inscriptions and newspaper clippings enclosed.
First and only edition, privately printed by the bookseller Seeber in Florence for the author, Lydia Bushnell Smith. The book has been published in Italian on the rectos, and English on the versos of each page, and focuses on the history of the Mediterranean island of Elba, where Napoleon was exiled.
This copy is a special copy presented from the author to her "life-long friend" Bessie Judd Bishop who, according to the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, was a Madison native related to several prominent families in the area including Meigs, Field, Judd, Wilcox, and Bishop. A postcard from Seeber's bookshop in Florence bears an inscription from the author, and was tipped in to the front cover. Clearly a special copy to Bessie, there is an early ink inscription on the front free endpaper that reads, "This book is not to be taken from this house, neither loaned nor given away nor sold" (Ironically, that inscription has been at some point obscured by the Madison Historical Society's bookplate).
In addition to the above, a photographic postcard has been pasted to the front free endpaper, and is labeled "Lydia Bushnell Smith and her friend Rowena Ashton at their home in Italy". The postcard was sent from Lydia to Bessie a year earlier in 1913, and has a lengthy note which reads: "Dear Bessie, Sarah writes that you visited Old Neck to discover my whereabouts, I think it must have been in response to the many thoughts I have sent your way. I have been on this side of the water over seven years, and now have a little house of my own (with an English girl) near Florence. If you come over, don't fail to make us a visit. Mr. & Mrs. Constance Wilcox spent a month with us last year. Write to us, do. Villa La Pace. This is our front gate. Our garden is beautiful, our 14-room villa comfortable and artistic. We shall rent for a year, if possible, and go around the world. Sincerely Lydia."
Of the women mentioned above, we know the most about Constance Wilcox, who was a prominent Madison resident (for more info, see the MHS website's blog entry titled "The Leisure Class"). We have been unable to positively identify Ms. Rowena Ashton, though she presumably the "English girl" mentioned in the postcard's note. Of Lydia Bushnell Smith, we do know she was a highly educated and worldly woman who loved to write, including for publications such as The Ladies' Home Journal (see pg. 16 of the August 1897 issue) and The Connecticut Magazine. Of most interest, however, is an article in a publication called The Woman Citizen, which reported that Lydia had become involved in an "International Home School for Blind Officers" on the Italian Riviera in 1918: "The school has for its aim the care and instruction of educated soldiers of small means during a period sufficient for them to read and write (by the Braille System), music, etc., in the hope of insuring to them mental resources for a future which would otherwise loom blank and miserable ... The Princess Colonna di Stigliano, General and Nobil Donna Caporale, Contessa Manini, and others, are on the advisory committee ... The school is for the blind officers of all Allied armies" (see pg. 54 of the Jun 1st issue of The Woman Citizen).
Small 4to (176 x 148mm), pp. 99, [1], with photographic plates. Bound in original publisher's stiff paper wrappers, upper wrapper printed in black and red. Postcards with early ink inscriptions and newspaper clippings enclosed.
First and only edition, privately printed by the bookseller Seeber in Florence for the author, Lydia Bushnell Smith. The book has been published in Italian on the rectos, and English on the versos of each page, and focuses on the history of the Mediterranean island of Elba, where Napoleon was exiled.
This copy is a special copy presented from the author to her "life-long friend" Bessie Judd Bishop who, according to the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, was a Madison native related to several prominent families in the area including Meigs, Field, Judd, Wilcox, and Bishop. A postcard from Seeber's bookshop in Florence bears an inscription from the author, and was tipped in to the front cover. Clearly a special copy to Bessie, there is an early ink inscription on the front free endpaper that reads, "This book is not to be taken from this house, neither loaned nor given away nor sold" (Ironically, that inscription has been at some point obscured by the Madison Historical Society's bookplate).
In addition to the above, a photographic postcard has been pasted to the front free endpaper, and is labeled "Lydia Bushnell Smith and her friend Rowena Ashton at their home in Italy". The postcard was sent from Lydia to Bessie a year earlier in 1913, and has a lengthy note which reads: "Dear Bessie, Sarah writes that you visited Old Neck to discover my whereabouts, I think it must have been in response to the many thoughts I have sent your way. I have been on this side of the water over seven years, and now have a little house of my own (with an English girl) near Florence. If you come over, don't fail to make us a visit. Mr. & Mrs. Constance Wilcox spent a month with us last year. Write to us, do. Villa La Pace. This is our front gate. Our garden is beautiful, our 14-room villa comfortable and artistic. We shall rent for a year, if possible, and go around the world. Sincerely Lydia."
Of the women mentioned above, we know the most about Constance Wilcox, who was a prominent Madison resident (for more info, see the MHS website's blog entry titled "The Leisure Class"). We have been unable to positively identify Ms. Rowena Ashton, though she presumably the "English girl" mentioned in the postcard's note. Of Lydia Bushnell Smith, we do know she was a highly educated and worldly woman who loved to write, including for publications such as The Ladies' Home Journal (see pg. 16 of the August 1897 issue) and The Connecticut Magazine. Of most interest, however, is an article in a publication called The Woman Citizen, which reported that Lydia had become involved in an "International Home School for Blind Officers" on the Italian Riviera in 1918: "The school has for its aim the care and instruction of educated soldiers of small means during a period sufficient for them to read and write (by the Braille System), music, etc., in the hope of insuring to them mental resources for a future which would otherwise loom blank and miserable ... The Princess Colonna di Stigliano, General and Nobil Donna Caporale, Contessa Manini, and others, are on the advisory committee ... The school is for the blind officers of all Allied armies" (see pg. 54 of the Jun 1st issue of The Woman Citizen).
B2021.29