Stowe, Harriet Beecher. Uncle Tom's Cabin. Boston: John P. Jewett, 1852. 2 volumes. [2], v-x, 13-312; 322 pp. + 6 plates. Publisher's brown cloth stamped in blind and gilt (BAL's state B, no sequence.) Spines skewed and wear at spine ends, cloth with moderate fading, contents excellent with only minor instances of spotting. Very Good. ***************************** First edition, first issue [per BAL, meeting all points], sold with TLS of Oswald Garrison Villard. "The social impact of Uncle Tom's Cabin was greater than that of any book before or since" (PMM 332). The work was published on March 20, 1852, and the entire edition of 5000 was sold within days. Abraham Lincoln later remarked that Stowe's influential book started the Civil War. The folded, two-page typed letter by Oswald Garrison Villard (accompanying the book) is on the letterhead of The Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth, dated June 20, 1916, and signed on the second page. Villard was a co-founder of the NAACP. The letter, addressed to M. Hellman, is a request for contributions to the school. [BAL 19343; Sabin 92457; PMM 332.]