A History of the Feud between the Hill and Evans Parties of Garrard County, KY: The Most Exciting Tragedy ever Enacted on the Bloody Grounds of Kentucky.
Louisville, KY: C. Hagen & Co., (c1854). First edition. 8vo. 115 pp. Map and plate (each with a corner clipped, taking a bit of the image). Cover title: "The History of the Hill and Evans Feud." Howes T-198 ("b"): "The youthful author was lynched in Tennessee a few years later for the brutal murder of his mother, sister, and brother." Not in Sabin. Coleman 1699: "This well-known feud grew out of the return of a female slave which Dr. Hezekiah Evans hired from John Hill." Jillson Rare Kentucky Books, p. 125: "Lt. Thompson wrote this when about 20 years old. The law-breaking he described apparently had its effect upon his young and impressionable mind, for, shortly thereafter he killed his own father in a very brutal manner and paid the penalty by hanging." Coleman Kentucky Rarities 126. Eberstadt 134, 366: "The original Louisville edition is exceedingly rare, and not to be confused with the James reprint published in Cincinnati. The feud, which started over a female slave, resulted in many killings, and is one of the more famous of all such affairs." OCLC locates but six copies (California-Berkeley, Yale, Berea, Louisville-Law, Harvard, Virginia, all accounted for); AAS has the more common Cincinnati issue from the same year (OCLC locates 59 copies of that printing). Light traces of spine label, bookplate, and pocket removal, margins clipped from several leaves, including title page, where accession numbers or library stamps might have been placed, without loss of text. Later black half-roan (rubbed, corners and edges bumped, spine ends somewhat frayed) and marbled boards and endpapers, gilt spine title, original printed front wrapper bound in. (#5737). Item #58536
Price: $2,250.00