The Fall River Tragedy by Edwin H. Porter

As I told you at the start of our story, I had to wait for the pleasure forty years before I found the first copy that I had ever seen, in the Library of Congress.”ġ968 – Untold Story – Edward Radin p16 – The Fall River Tragedy, by Edwin H. So here are the more obvious citations to be found:ġ967 – Private Disgrace – Victoria Lincoln p27 – “…bought off the printer had the books destroyed”ġ967 – Private Disgrace – Lincoln p304 -“The town was further irked when Lizzie bought up The Fall River Tragedy and nobody had a chance to read it. I didn’t bother with the fictional accounts of the Borden case (Hunter, Engstrom, Satterthwait) because golly gee, who the hell cares.

There are scads of reference to the “rarity”, i.e., “Lizzie bought out….” in numerous compendium books – too many to cite here. (BTW, I think Muriel’s Ward 4 and Neighborhood sketches in the front of her book are far better and more encompassing than others that have been published). William Masterton’s Lizzie Didn’t Do It, and Muriel Arnold’s Hands of Time had no reference to the rarity of Porter’s book. Radin – who proposed that Bridget did it – made a point of NOT mentioning it. Since Pearson believed in Lizzie’s guilt I’d think he would have mentioned it. It appears the legend begins in 1967 with Victoria Lincoln because even in his 1937 Trial Essay, Edmund Pearson’s “bible”, there is no mention. Porter’s book (the first edition), The Fall River Tragedy, Press of J. The more important books on the Borden case reveal an evolution of author-to-author citations as to the rarity of Edwin H. As a matter of fact, I’m going to offer up one of my four original Porters in my “Collectibles for Sale” page….so just be patient. Otherwise, the potential bidder/buyer would be well – less inclined to pay that much. The whole point of my post is that the book is NOT AS RARE as it has been professed to be and thus, this may very well be the reason the eBay Seller did not cite my blog or provide the URL to this particular entry.

More interesting to me, however, is that the Seller did a literal cut and paste from my words below. An easy Google search will prove this out.Ĭheck out the eBay Seller’s listing here. I’m re-posting this blog entry from September 2007 because this evening I noted an eBay seller has an original Porter listed for a “Buy it Now” price of $6,000! (Note: Seller dropped price to $3,000 on March 3rd) Only an idiot would pay that much given that antiquarian booksellers have a few available right now for less than a thousand bucks. I’ve been saying for a few years now that I’ll be selling off my collection (except the Lizzie letters) at rock bottom prices - and that’s just what I’ve been doing.

A few months ago sold a Rebello for $25 to a gal in San Francisco. UPDATE -– I just sold another original Porter for $100 to a guy in Boise, Idaho.

The Fall River Tragedy by Edwin H. Porter