The Louise E. Bettens Memorial, Harvard College
New York: Private Distribution By E.D. Bettens, 1916. Limited Edition. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. Near Fine. Item #014097
[23]p. [17] leaves of plates. Bound for him in a rich red Levant by Stikeman & Company. There were 150 copies also done but not in the exquisite binding. Includes the bookplate of her library. A handsome copy with some light rubbing to extremities. In her early married life, her husband developed an illness which incapacitated him, a son died at the age of 20, while she returned to Cincinnati where she worked as a seamstress and raised her two remaining sons, where they lived above a furniture store. Her son Edward went to Boston and became a well-known lawyer and her other son Thomas a college professor. Edward was wealthy and enabled his mother to live a rich and luxurious life. She was able to obtain a collection of Whistler paintings which she donated to the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard, knew Emerson and many of those among the Harvard elite. This volume show her home, library, and background. John Fiske gave her a special alcove at the Harvard Library where she would keep her books and notes. As her eyesight failed, she had readers who read her the classics and her beloved Emerson. (A photograph in the volume shows her with a reader who is speaking over a primitive microphone.) Her son Edward Bettens produced this book in her honor and continued to add to the art collection at Harvard. A handsome copy with some light rubbing to the extremities.
Price: $350.00