HENRY LAURENS
(1724 - 1792) (1724 - 1792) American Revolutionary statesman and first President of the Continental Congress, captured by the British while attempting negotiations with the Dutch and later exchanged for Gen. Cornwallis. Pair of signed books, "Letters Written by the Late Right Honourable Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, to His Son", edited by Eugenia Stanhope (London: J. Dodsley), 1774, 1175pp. in two volumes, folio. Each volume is bound in brown leather boards, and each bears an inscription on the front flyleaf, in Henry Laurens' hand: "John B Laurens presented him by his father Henry Laurens". Laurens further executes his signature on the title page and on page 28 of each volume, for a total of six signatures across within volumes. Each flyleaf is further signed by John Laurens beneath his father's signature. As a handbook for worldly success in the 18th century, the "Letters to His Son" give perceptive and nuanced advice for how a gentleman should interpret the social codes that are manners. Clearly gentleman Henry Laurens hoped the same for his own son. The front and back boards of each volume are separated but present, and pages 547 through 552 in volume one have been torn out, else very good.