HENSON, Joseph (1789-1881). Truth Stranger Than Fiction: Father Henson's Story of his Own Life. Boston; Cleveland: John P. Jewett & Co., Henry P. B. Jewett, 1858.

8vo (188 x 114 mm). (Lacking portrait frontispiece.) Original blind-stamped cloth (rubbing, sunning to spine). Provenance: James B. Libby (ownership signature).

FIRST EDITION. Truth Stranger than Fiction is an expanded version of Father Henson's first memoir, originally published in 1849 as The Life of Josiah Henson, Formerly a Slave, Now an Inhabitant of Canada, as Narrated by Himself. Henson's original work received little attention until it was found out that Henson had been the model for the character of Uncle Tom in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. Following this Henson's work became an immediate sensation, selling nearly 100,000 in the first two years afterwards. The work was republished again in 1876 as Uncle Tom's Story of His Life: An Autobiography of the Rev. Josiah Henson.