Life of General Sam Houston. Washington: J.T. Towers, [1852?].  FIRST EDITION. Raines p.226; Sabin 33192. -- BURNET, David Gouverneur. Review of the Life of Gen. Sam Houston, as Recently Published in Washington City by J.T. Towers. Galveston: News Power Press Print, 1852. FIRST EDITION. Graff 495; Raines p.37; Winkler 295.

2 works bound in one, 8vo (245 x 157 mm). (Some browning, spotting or staining.) Stab-sewn in contemporary wrappers (wrinkled and soiled, a few tears with losses). Provenance: Several early annotations on wrappers a few leaves; acquired Dorothy Sloan (11 December 2009, Sale 22, lot 228). 

The second work is the FIRST PAMPHLET PRINTED IN TEXAS ON A HORSE-POWERED PRESS. Burnet wrote his review of Houston's life in response to Charles Edwards Lester's Sam Houston and HIs Republic, which was factually inaccurate.  According to Raines, Burnet wrote to a friend: "'I have some idea of answering some of its misstatements and in order to do so am anxious to collect all the facts possible relating to the campaign of ‘36. The book is full of falsehood—every truth is turned upside down.' He bemoaned Houston as “the prince of Humbugs,” and detailed errors, exaggerations, and what he called outright lies. No one seems to have doubted that Houston had himself written the book. ...About the same time an anonymous pamphlet appeared, printed by J.T. Towers in Washington, entitled Life of General Sam Houston, obviously derived from the Lester volume....The Towers pamphlet, he said, is but a repetition of the same falsehoods and the same absurd distortions of character" (see Raines 126n). The Center for American History at the University of Texas holds a copy of these two works bound together.