Item #1604 ALAN PINKERTON; America's First Private Eye / Illustrated. Sigmund A. Lavine.
ALAN PINKERTON; America's First Private Eye / Illustrated
ALAN PINKERTON; America's First Private Eye / Illustrated
ALAN PINKERTON; America's First Private Eye / Illustrated
ALAN PINKERTON; America's First Private Eye / Illustrated
ALAN PINKERTON; America's First Private Eye / Illustrated
ALAN PINKERTON; America's First Private Eye / Illustrated
ALAN PINKERTON; America's First Private Eye / Illustrated

ALAN PINKERTON; America's First Private Eye / Illustrated

New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1965. First American Edition. Cloth. 8vo, cloth with gold lettering on spine, 28 B&W illustrations, Mylar-protected pictorial dust jacket (unclipped), xi + [ii] + 241 pages. Fine / Fine. Item #1604

Allan J. Pinkerton (1819--1884) was a Scottish-American detective, best known for creating the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. In 1849, Pinkerton was appointed the first police detective in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois. In 1850, he and a Chicago attorney formed the North-Western Police Agency, which lbecame Pinkerton & Co, and then, the Pinkerton National Detective Agency; now Pinkerton Consulting and Investigations, a subsidiary of Securitas AB.

Pinkerton's successes in solving Illinois train robberies brought him to the attention of Abraham Lincoln, the attorney for the Illinois Central, and its chief engineer, George McClellan--later a famous Civil War general.

In 1859, Pinkerton attended the secret meetings held by John Brown (the abolitionist) and Frederick Douglas in Chicago, which later led to John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry in November 1859.

When the Civil War began, Pinkerton became head of the Union Intelligence Service, foiling an assassination plot aimed at Lincoln who was on his way to Washington, D.C. Pinkerton's agents often worked as spies to gather military intelligence. He himself undertook several undercover missions as a Union soldier using the alias "Major E.J. Allen." Pinkerton's insignia was a wide-open eye with the caption "We never sleep."

Fine/NF Condition with clean, bright, pages and a solid text block; unfoxed sharp illustrations. Jacket is worn at extremities but complete!

An Excellent study of this important security guard turned master detective.

Price: $35.00

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