OSLER FAMILY.


OSLER, WILLIAM. 1849-1919.; et al]. Records of the lives of Ellen Free Pickton and Featherstone Lake Osler. [Oxford]: Printed for Private Circulation, 1915. 4to (258 x 189 mm). Original green cloth. Frontispiece portraits of the subjects of the book, a large folding genealogical table, and 11 additional inserted plates (including facsimiles of letters and documents). Minor wear at edges;WITH: Typed Letter Signed ("Wm Osler") to Herber [Britton Gwyn], discussing the collection among other friendly matters, 1 p, on Oxford letterhead, [Oxford], July 3, 1915, old folds; WITH: an additional ALS from Edmund Boyd Osler.Provenance: Dr. Frederick Le M. Grasett (presentation from Edmund Boyd Osler, armorial bookplate). INSCRIBED BY EDMUND BOYD OSLER, "ONE OF THE RAREST OF OSLER'S PUBLICATIONS, privately printed for distribution to members of the family" (Golden and Roland, Sir William Osler: An Annotated Bibliography, San Francisco, 1988, reproducing the title page of this volume from the "W. Bruce Fye Collection"). Shortly after the book was printed at the Oxford University Press, William Osler informed his long-time friend and frequent correspondent Mabel Brewster, "I must send you a copy of my father's journal & papers which my brother E.B. has had printed here. You will be interested to look it over. It is a private, family affair, not for distribution." Quoted in Cushing 2:489. Bibliotheca Osleriana 3594. The inscription in this unique copy reads, "Dr. Grasett from Edmo. B. Osler." Edmund Boyd Osler (1845-1924) was one of William Osler's older brothers, and a prominent Canadian investment banker, politician, and philanthropist, knighted in 1912. Dr. Frederick Le M. Grasett, the recipient of this copy (with his armorial bookplate) was professor of surgery at the University of Toronto. Grasett received his medical degree in 1872 from the University of Edinburgh, where he served as Joseph Lister's dresser in 1870, his clerk in 1871, and as house surgeon in 1874. He settled in Toronto in 1875 and presented the first paper on antiseptic surgery in Canada the following year. For Grasset's memoir of his experiences with Lister see A. L. Turner, ed. Joseph, Baron Lister (Edinburgh 1927) 109-113. The letter from Edmund Boyd Osler, written on his 21 Jordan Street, Toronto stationary and included as an example of his signature, was sent to Dr. Clarence M. Hincks at the University of Toronto Psychological Laboratory on July 17, 1918. The letter from William Osler, dated 3 July 1915, reads, "I knew you would be greatly interested in father's journal, and when you go to Toronto do see all the letters and papers which we have had bound together...," and continues to give an account of the family, including Revere, Campbell, and Norman Gwyn. Herbert Britton Gwyn (1873-1934) was Osler's nephew, the son of his sister Charlotte Elizabeth Osler Gwyn. Osler's son Revere was fatally wounded in France in 1917. For Campbell and Norman Gwyn see Cushing 2:483-484 and the genealogy table in this book. For Edmund Boyd Osler, see Dictionary of Canadian Biography, volume 15. Golden & Roland 1361.