STAGE-COACH AND TAVERN DAYS, Alice Earle 1st/1st 1900 Illustrated Tavern Culture

  Stage-Coach and Tavern Days ~ By Alice Morse Earle ~ First Edition / First Printing 1900, Illustrated, Tavern and Stage Coach Culture

 Publisher: The MacMillan Company, New York and London (1900)

First edition from 1900 of "Stage-Coach and Tavern Days" by Alice Morse Earle. The boards and binding are solid and tight save for some shelf-wear. A small tear near the top inside corner on the first page (it's a bit loose from the spine, this page only). Pages are crisp and clean, and free of interior markings. The book is a comprehensive study, both light-hearted and serious, of the enormous role of taverns and modes of travel in Colonial culture. Some of the chapters discuss the Puritan ordinary, the tavern landlord, tavern fare and tavern ways, signs and symbols, various famous taverns, and more. 449 pages, and heavily illustrated. A fascinating book, and a scarce first edition. Please see below for more information on Ms. Earle!

Biography

Alice Morse Earle was an American historian and author from Worcester, Massachusetts. She was christened Mary Alice by her parents Edwin Morse and Abby Mason Clary. On 15 April 1874, she married Henry Earle of New York, changing her name from Mary Alice Morse to Alice Morse Earle. Her writings, beginning in 1890, focussed on small sociological details rather than grand details, and thus are invaluable for modern sociologists. She wrote a number of books on colonial America (and especially the New England region) such as Curious Punishments of Bygone Days. She was a passenger aboard the RMS Republic when, while in a dense fog, that ship collided with the SS Florida. During the transfer of passengers, Alice fell into the water. Her near drowning in 1909 off the coast of Nantucket during this abortive trip to Egypt weakened her health sufficiently that she died two years later.