In 1803, Elisabeth Patterson, daughter of a wealthy Baltimore merchant, married Jerome Bonaparte, brother of Napoleon. Napoleon, wanting to use his family members to expand his empire, had the marriage declared null and void and forced his brother to be made king of Westphalia and to marry Catharine of Wurrtemberg. The author, a kinsman of Patterson, found her books and other family documents in his mother's library, and has put together a fascinating history using letters of the Patterson family, officials in the US government, Napoleon's minister to Talleyrand, the Bonaparte family, and more. This is also the first English translation of the lawsuit in Paris by which Elisabeth hoped to establish her son in the line of succession to the Empire of France. How intriguing! A very good copy in a very good dust jacket (price clipped) in mylar. Farrar Straus & Cudahy. NY. 1958. Hb, Dj. USED. $35.00