fair laura d (1 Ergebnisse)

San Francisco, 1871. Only edition (illustrator). San Francisco, 1871. Only edition. The "Ferryboat Murder": A Landmark Case of Femininity, Insanity, and Victorian Scandal [Trial]. Fair, Laura D., Defendant. Official Report of the Trial of Laura D. Fair, For the Murder of Alex. P. Crittenden. 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 discovered her lover, Alexander Crittenden, had no intention of leaving his wife, she fatally shot him aboard a San Francisco ferry in front of his family. The ensuing trial became a national lightning rod for Victorian anxieties regarding the 'sanctity of the family' and the legal rights of women. In a pioneering (and controversial) defense, Fair's counsel argued she was a victim of 'Moral Mania'-a temporary insanity triggered by her menstrual cycle and 'nervous prostration.' While the suffragist movement championed her as a victim of a patriarchal legal system, the public was captivated by the scandalous correspondence printed here in full. This remains a cornerstone text for the study of 19th-century gender politics and the 'insanity' defense. No copy of this title has appeared at auction in the last 45 years, and only three copies have appeared since 1948. Krist, Trespassers at the Golden Gate (2025) 5. McDade, The Annals of Murder 291.