GEORGE WASHINGTON (1732-1799). Washington was Founding Father, Commander-in-Chief of colonial forces during the American Revolutionary War and the first President of the United States of America. A volume signed by George Washington on the top of the title page. The book a bound copy of the first five issues of Volume One of "The Massachusetts Magazine: or Monthly Museum of Knowledge and Rational Entertainment", Washington has signed the title page of Volume I, published by Isaiah Thomas and Ebenezer T. Andrews of Boston in 1789. The inside front cover has his armorial bookplate and this book was once in his Mount Vernon library. The front endpaper has an inscription reading "Lewis Minor Coleman, Jr./1911/ Presented by his grandmother M.A.MC. from the library of his great-great-grandfather Chief Justice John Marshall". The Massachusetts Magazine, founded in 1789 and published until 1796 by the famous printer Isaiah Thomas, advertised on its title page that it contains "poetry, music, biography, history, physics, geography, morality, criticism, philosophy, mathematics, agriculture, architecture, chemistry, novels, tales, romances, translations, news, marriages, deaths, eteorological observations, etc. etc.". It was founded at the same time as the nation to act as "a kind of thermometer, by which the genius, taste, literature, history, politics, arts, manners, amusements and improvements of the age and nation, may be ascertained". This particular book is important for Washington since it covers the events of 1789 that included his inauguration as the country's first President. For example, page 314 is entitled "Papers relative to the President of the United States" and includes a printing of his Inaugural Address that starts with "Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order...". It is then followed by "The Address of the Senate to the President of the United States In Answer to his Speech to Both Houses of Congress". On page 286 is a passage entitled "Memoirs of General Washington". In other words, Washington kept this book since it was a "clippings file" of his first year as President. An outstanding Washington signed book with a great association year and terrific content. Front endpaper with inscription reading: Lewis Minor Coleman, Jr./1911/ Presented by his grandmother M.A.M.C. (Mary Ambler Marshall Coleman) from the library of his great-great-grandfather Chief Justice John Marshall. Provenance: The Estate of Charles Boyd Coleman, Jr., Chattanooga, TN, by descent from Lewis Minor Coleman, Jr., son of CSA Lt. Colonel Lewis Minor Coleman and Mary Ambler Marshall, daughter of James K. Marshall and granddaughter of John Marshall (1755-1835). Lewis M. Coleman Jr. was also related to the family of Henry Dearborn by his marriage to Julia Wingate Boyd, daughter of Annette Maria Dearborn Boyd, who was the daughter of Greenleaf Dearborn (1786-1846) and great granddaughter of Henry Dearborn (1751-1829) on her mother's side. Note: John Marshall was the fourth Chief Justice of the United States, serving for thirty-five years. He oversaw landmark decisions such as Marbury v. Madison, McCulloch v. Maryland, Gibbons v. Ogden and the Dartmouth College case. His lifelong friendship with George Washington developed during their Revolutionary War service including the winter at Valley Forge and the battles at Brandywine and Monmouth; he went on to write one of the early biographies of America's first president (see related lots, #263, 264). Description courtesy of Stuart Lutz Historic Documents, Inc. (Additional high-resolution photos are available at www.caseantiques.com.)

This volume has been rebacked and rebound in leather with new endpapers before 1911 and is in good condition. It appears that the original front cover has been incorporated into the binding and shows some wear. The bookplate has been preserved and is in good condition. The front cover is scuffed. There is a slight tear to the title page nowhere near the dark Washington autograph, and there is toning and spotting to the interior pages.