SAMANTHA AMONG THE BRETHEREN or The Upholdin' of the Meetin' House

Springfield, Ohio: Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick, 1897. Original Paper Wraps. Good. Marietta Holley was a late 19th century American novelist who used humor and satire to point out social problems such as women's rights and alcoholism. Born and raised and spending most of her life in Jefferson County in Upstate New York, Holley was friends with Mark Twain, Clara Barton and Susan B. Anthony. Holley's works include a ten book series written in country dialect and featuring a down-to-earth, common-sense, rural housewife, Samantha Allen and her husband, Josiah. In "Samantha Among The Bretheren," Holley attacked with pointed humor the 1888 General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church's refusal to admit four women delegates even though they had been legally elected. Originally published in hardcover by Funk & Wagnalls in 1890, this rare paperback edition, the Oct., 1897 issue (No. 182) of the Farm and Fireside Library of publisher, Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick, appears to be the first printing, first paperback edition. About 5 1/4 x 7 1/2 inches, 232 pages including illustrations, bound in light card pictorial wrappers with front cover illustration showing "Samantha" in cameo superiimposed on a small town street. lIlustration and lettering is in blue ink against a grey background. Covers are heavily soiled and stained, with creased and bumped corners and chipped and worn spine ends that are beginning to peel away from binding. That said, the illustration and lettering on the wrappers is whole and completely legible. The text, still firmly bound with three heavy-duty staples, shows lightly yellowed pages, occasional stains and dogears, but o/w clean, complete and unmarked. We rated this book's condition "Good" because rarely does any paperback book in general circulation survive some 120 years in readable shape with all its text and both covers.