The Eleventh House: Memoirs

New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975. Hardcover. Small 4to. Green cloth with copper spine lettering, pictorial dust jacket. 312pp. Fine/very good. Light jacket edgewear. A tight and lovely first edition of Strode's last book -- with choice autograph addition: Tipped to the front flyleaf is a fine Typed Letter Signed from Strode, 1p, 5 3/4" X 7 3/4", University, AL, 26 September 1963. Addressed to noted Lincoln/Civil War scholar Arnold F. Gates (1914-93). On personal letterhead, Strode chats about an upcoming appearance before the New York Civil War Round Table (of which Gates was a long-time officer) and asks that tickets be sent to "a former student of mine [who] is now the publicity head of Colgate-Palmolice and the President of the University of Alabama Alumni in New York" and also notes "Naturally I am delighted to know that my friend, the eminent Bruce Catton, is to introduce me." Signed in black ink in his usual neat, miniscule script, with handwritten postscript "I do hope the 'business meeting' can be very brief" and one other sentence added in holograph. Hudson Strode (1892-1976) was a renowned creative writing professor who spent his entire career at the University of Alabama, but among Civil War scholars is considered one of the premiere Jefferson Davis scholars for his 3-volume biography (1955-64).