A spectacular fine binding edition of the biography of the Liberator of Ireland.

Daniel O'Connell (1775–1847) was one of the towering figures of 19th-century Irish and British political history — the architect of Catholic Emancipation of 1829.

This First American Edition, an elaborate versions printed by Sadlier, was the leading Catholic publishing house in America. The publisher catered to the vast Irish immigrant community that had flooded into the United States following the Famine of the 1840’s. Placing a grand, richly illustrated biography of O'Connell before that audience in 1872 was a deeply deliberate act — connecting Irish-Americans to their political heritage and to the figure who had championed their faith and their people. At least one reason for its appearance seems to have been to embolden Irish-Americans to continue the legacy of O’Connell by advocating for their rights in America during a time when the Irish-American community faced significant discrimination.

Margaret Anna Cusack (1829–1899), known as the Nun of Kenmare, was a former Irish Catholic nun who founded the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. She wrote 35 books, including many popular texts on Irish history and biography, founded Kenmare Publications, through which 200,000 volumes of her works were issued in less than ten years. She kept two full-time secretaries for correspondence and wrote letters on Irish causes in the Irish, United States, and Canadian press.

As a scholar has noted, in an era when nuns were "visible but not vocal," Cusack was an outspoken commentator, consciously constructing an alternative model for how nuns could be represented in the Irish public sphere. Her ability to command popular audiences on matters of Irish history and politics from within a religious identity was unusual and significant. Cusack displayed considerable skill in marketing her books to the burgeoning Catholic school market and to American audiences. She saw herself as undertaking a religious mission, declaring "The Press is now what the Pulpit was in former times." Her Kenmare writings constantly assert that faith and politics are inseparable.

No other examples of this extra fine binding "edition" of this classic volume on the market. An early pencil note indicates it may be custom rather than a standard binding option, and ordered at a cost of an extra $7.00, an absolutely whopping sum at the time. Our guess is that it was customized by the publisher in concert with a local binder, using the publisher's existing gold foil stamps, etc. 

The Mary O. Callaghan, almost certainly Mary O'Callaghan [1832-1898] who first arrived in Boston as a servant to the wealthy Bigelow family of Boston, but who herself, by the time of her death, owned a significant number of rental properties in the city and was an early, successful Irish business woman. 

[Ireland, Catholic Persecution, Abolition and Slavery]. Life of Daniel O'Connell, the Liberator. His Times - Political, Social, and Religious. by Sister M. F. Cusack. Kenmare Productions. New York. D. & J. Sadlier & Co. 1872. 803pp.

Very good, in a large 4to format, near folio. Some scattered foxing, heavier at one plate and tissue guard and frontis. Some minor rubbing, light spotting to front and rear pastedowns. Very sound and with only minor surface abrasions as shown.