Lord Nelson Book, Hudson, 1808. This softcover book is entitled “The Life And Actions Of That Distinguished Naval Hero, Admiral Lord Nelson; Who Fell In The Battle Of Trafalgar, October 21, 1805”, written by an Officer. Hudson, Published By William E. Norman Book-Seller, No. 2 Warren Street, N. Elliot, Printer, Catskill. 1808, and the book sold for twenty-five cents, which was a lot of money in those days. The book is string-bound and measures only 5 3/8 x 3 1/2 in. wide, with the original faded yellow wrappers, a woodcut frontis portrait of Admiral Lord Nelson wearing an eyepatch, 70 pages of text and an ad on the back cover for Willam E. Norman and what he has for sale - “A Large Assortment Of Books And Stationary, Including Every School Book in General Use. All which will be sold by the dozen or single, as low as any Book- Store in the United States. Writing & Wrapping Papers by Ream. Paper Hangings and Borders, Patent Medicines. Traveling and other Trunks.” Lord Nelson (1748 - 1805) was was a British flag officer in the Royal Navy whose leadership, grasp of strategy, and unconventional tactics brought about a number of decisive British naval victories during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest naval commanders in history, and he was killed in battle at Trafalgar leading the British fleet to a great victory over a combined French and Spanish fleet. Among other things, the book describes the line of battle for the ships on the British and French sides at Trafalagar and how the ships fared - were they taken prisoner, lost, destroyed, did they escape and so on - and it includes an account of Lord Nelson’s funeral towards the rear of the book (pages 66 to 70). This is one of many popular American biographies of Lord Nelson published just after his death, but the book is rare and hard to find. We’ve only been able to locate two in Special Collections around the world: one at the Univ. of Michigan and another at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Mass., and that’s it. Leonard Cowie, a noted historian who taught at the University of London, wrote a bibliography about Lord Nelson and didn’t even mention this title in his bibliography, which tells you how rare it is, nor is it in the holdings of The National Maritime Museum (NMM), a maritime museum in Greenwich, London which has the most important holdings in the world on the history of Britain at sea; their collection comprises more than two million items, including maritime art, cartography, manuscripts, scientific and navigational instruments, instruments for time-keeping and astronomy, and its holdings include paintings related to Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson and Captain James Cook, and this title is not in their holdings, which is rather amazing. The book has a tight binding, with paper loss on the spine, soiling and folds on the covers, creases at the tips, scattered brown spots and folds on some of the pages, and still an attractive ditty for Nelson collectors. #2663