THE WINNING OF THE WEST by ROOSEVELT, Theodore - 1905

New York: Current Literature Pub. Co., 1905. Reprint. Hardcover. Very Good or better, and a quite exceptional set. Six small (16mo: 4-1/4" x 7") volumes in half red morocco leather with matching corners, five raised bands, gilt-lettered and decorated spine, top edge gilt. Illustrated with frontispiece portraits and views. FIVE of the six volumes are INSCRIBED and SIGNED by the author. The first volume, the only volume with the recipient's name, is INSCRIBED to Sidney Gould and SIGNED and dated 10 January 1916. The second volume is INSCRIBED on the same date "with the good wishes of" and SIGNED. The third volume is INSCRIBED "Good luck/Theodore Roosevelt/Jan. 1916." The fourth volume is INSCRIBED "with the best wishes/of/Theodore Roosevelt." Finally, the sixth volume is INSCRIBED "A happy new year!/Theodore Roosevelt/Jan. 1916." THE WINNING OF THE WEST was Roosevelt's literary masterpiece. After completing it, Roosevelt wondered whether, "I have or have not properly expressed all the ideas that seethed vaguely in my soul as I wrote it" (Edmund Morris, THE RISE OF THEODORE ROOSEVELT, page 397). The book was immensely successful, with the first edition disappearing in little more than a month. A pencil note by the owner in the first volume indicates that the books were purchased on the day of Roosevelt's death: 6 January 1919.