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New York: N. D. Thompson & Co., Publishers, [1884]. Illustrated broadside, 19.625” x 26.75”, plus margins, text and 12 wood engravings. CONDITION: Very good, a few tiny losses along old center vertical fold, one short tear upper margin slightly into printed area, light creasing, a few spots of light foxing.

An unrecorded broadside for a campaign biography of Grover Cleveland and his running mate Thomas Hendricks, published during the election of 1884.

This broadside advertises Frank Triplett’s The Authorized Pictorial Lives of Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks, a 660 page book on their lives and political careers. Cleveland and Hendricks won the election, but Hendricks only served as Vice President for about eight months, until his death on 25 Nov. 1885. The portion of the book that covers the “great reform Governor” Cleveland touches on his becoming an orphan; his triumph over poverty; his success as a lawyer, and his work as Mayor of Buffalo and Chief Executive of New York. The section devoted to Hendricks covers his life, achievements, and public services. The book also included a vivid description of the Chicago Convention of 1884 (where Cleveland was nominated); a complete summary of American Politics for previous 120 years; a statement of popular and electoral votes, and so forth.

Illustrations include portraits of Cleveland and Hendricks; the young Cleveland as a clerk; the house where Cleveland was born; Hendrick’s old home in the Ligonier Valley; the first school Cleveland attended; young Cleveland’s home near Buffalo, NY; the young Cleveland fighting with the village bully; the young Cleveland working in the harvest field; the Chicago Convention at the moment of Cleveland’s nomination; Hendrick’s mother at home; the store where Cleveland worked as a clerk, and so forth. The broadside notes that for the book’s fifty illustrations the company has “spent more money than has been spent on all the dozen other democratic campaign books combined.”

Notes are addressed to both book-agents and book buyers, and terms are spelled out. A notice explains that, in order to enable the company’s agents to repeat a “double harvest” by selling to all parties, the company has arranged with writer Judge J. W. Buel to prepare an illustrated 600 page biography of the Republican Candidates, “illustrated as richly as the Democratic work.” N.D. Thompson & Co. also published a Standard Authorized Campaign Biography of Cleveland. 

Other works by Col. Frank Triplett include Conquering the Wilderness; Sketches of Western Adventure; Prospecting, Assaying and Mining; The Enchanted Isle, etc. In composing the book, Triplett was assisted by Cleveland himself, Cleveland’s law partner Hon. Wilson S. Bissell, and Cleveland’s private secretary.

No copies recorded in OCLC. 

Item #8090

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