Official Report of the Trial of Laura D. Fair, For the Murder of Alex

Beschreibung

San Francisco, 1871. Only edition. McDade 291: Driven Insane by Her Menstrual Cycle? [Trial]. Fair, Laura D., Defendant. Marsh, [Andrew Jackson], Reporter. Osbourne, [Samuel], Reporter. Official Report of the Trial of Laura D. Fair, For the Murder of Alex. P. Crittenden: Including the Testimony, The Arguments of Counsel, And the Charge of the Court, Reported Verbatim, And the Entire Correspondence of the Parties, With Portraits of the Defendant and the Deceased. From the Short-Hand Notes of Marsh & Osbourne, Official Reporters of the Courts. San Francisco: Printed by the San Francisco Co-Operative Printing Co., 1871. 4, 325, xvii pp. With two full-page woodcut portraits of Fair and Crittenden as a double frontispiece. Octavo (9-3/4" x 6-1/2"; 24.8 x 16.5 cm). Stab-stitched book bound in later (twentieth-century?) three-quarter sheep over marbled boards, gilt title to spine. Rubbing, light wear to extremities, front joint starting, chipping to spine ends, corners bumped and worn, hinges cracked (front hinge reinforced with archival tissue), library bookplate (with deaccession stamp) to front pastedown. Moderate toning to interior, light edgewear and a few chips to portrait leaves, light foxing to last few leaves, tear to head of gutter of title page, internally clean. Housed in attractive custom crimson clamshell box, quarter morocco over cloth with raised bands and gilt title to spine. $1,500. * Only edition. When Laura Fair found out that the married lawyer who had courted her had no intention of actually leaving his wife, she shot him on the San Francisco ferry. The trial quickly became a national sensation, "calling into question fundamental assumptions about the sanctity of the family, the value of reputation, and the range of acceptable expressions of femininity" (Krist). The prosecution sought to paint Fair as a mercenary, promiscuous woman who seduced Crittenden for his money. The defense countered by arguing that Fair's painful menstrual cycles "and great prostration of the nervous system" had driven her insane. Fair's cause was taken up by local suffragists, who saw her as the victim of a legal system run by and prejudiced in favor of men. Despite their efforts, she was convicted and sentenced to hang. A second trial was ordered on appeal and resulted in acquittal. No copy of this title has appeared at auction in the last 45 years, and only three copi.

Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 82110

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Bibliografische Details

Titel

Official Report of the Trial of Laura D. Fair, For the Murder of Alex

Erscheinungsjahr

1871

Einband

Hardcover

Illustrator

San Francisco, 1871. Only edition

Verkäuferkataloge

• Antiquarian & Scholarly