Norwalk After 250 Years, Published in 1901. 

Size: 9 3/8 X 6 1/2 X 1 in. 

This history of the city of Norwalk, Connecticut, was compiled by Samuel Weed and is a first edition published in 1902 by C.A. Freeman. The city of Norwalk was officially founded in 1649 and incorporated as a town in 1651, and this book traces the history of the city up to 1901. The book has red cloth covers with “Norwalk After 250 Years” in gilt on the front cover, blank endpapers, the title page reads “Norwalk after two hundred & fifty years. An account of the Celebration of the 250th Anniversary of the Charter of the Town, 1651 - September 11th 1901, Including Historical Sketches of Churches, Schools, Old Homes, Institutions, Eminent Men, Patriotic and Benevolent Work. together with The Record of Soldiers and Sailors enlisted in Norwalk from 1676 to 1898. The Civic Progress in the Last Century and Statisctics of Commerce and there miscellany of Local interest” in a manuscript style with red, black and gilt devices on the title page. The book is dedicated to the Reverend Charles Melbourne Selleck, with a three-page Table of Contents and Errata on the last page of the Table of Contents, which  makes this a first edition. There’s a two-page Preface by Samuel Weed dated 1902, there are 387 pages of text, and the book is illustrated with sepia colored photos. The book measures 9 3/8 x 6 1/2 inches wide and is in good condition, with a tight binding and clean pages and text. The only real blemishes are bumps on the heel and crown of the spine, light wear at the tips, faint soiling on the covers, and a dark spot on the front cover and faint spots on the back cover. The book is rare too. We found only one first edition listed on the rare book website we use and later reprints from 2022 and that’s it, and Norwalk had a small population of only about 20,000 people in 1901, according to Wikipedia, so we don’t believe many copies of the first edition were ever printed. The single copy we found from 1902 goes for $325 and the three reprints from 2022 go for $67 to $130 on the rare book website we use, so we believe an opening bid of $60 is a reasonable bid to get things going.