Among the Pines. or South in Secession-Time

310 pp., 8-page terminal publisher catalog. 12mo. Original light brown blind-stamped cloth, gilt titles. The author's firsthand account of life in the Southern states, taken from his own experiences traveling there in the early 1860s, self-published under a pseudonym. Sabin 27448. "In July 1864 Gilmore was sent unofficially by President Abraham Lincoln to discuss with Jefferson Davis possible terms for ending the Civil War. Davis rejected Lincoln's proposals because of the latter's refusal to recognize the independence of the Confederacy. When as account of this conference was later published in the Atlantic Monthly, it did much to undermine the peace treaty in the North and aided in Lincoln's re-election." - Johns Hopkins University "Born in Boston, Massachusetts on September 10, 1823, James Roberts Gilmore's early career began as a businessman. By the age of twenty-five, he had worked his way up the corporate ladder to become the head of a cotton and shipping firm in New York City. His frequent business trips to the South provided Gilmore with the inspiration to become a writer, and by the time the Civil War broke out in 1861, Gilmore retired from his shipping business to focus his attention on becoming an author. In the early years of the Civil War, Gilmore's writings gained widespread attention for their realistic portrayals of southern life and graphic accounts of slavery. Writing under the pen name Edmund Kirke, Gilmore's novels, Among the Pines (1862), My Southern Friends (1862), Down in Tennessee (1863), Among the Guerillas (1863), Adrift in Dixie (1863), On the Border (1864), and Patriot Boys (1864), resonnated with his audience, and inspired many in the North to take up the Union cause of emancipation. In 1862, Gilmore founded the "Continental Monthly" magazine to advocate for emancipation as a political necessity. By July 1864, Gilmore was so well-regarded that President Abraham Lincoln entrusted him to conduct an unofficial mission to Richmond to arrange for a peaceful settlement to the Civil War. Gilmore's efforts, however, failed. Confederate President Jefferson Davis would not agree to any peace proposal that did not include a declaration of independence for the Confederate States. By the end of the Civil War, the Union had won, but Gilmore lost the fortune he had built up as a businessman prior to the conflict. He decided to enter into business again in 1873, but the desire to write never left him. By 1883, he retired again and applied himself anew to the pursuit of literature." - Gordon T. Belt, The Posterity Project