Back in 1975 Robert Cover's Justice Accused made a lot out of the fact that Herman Melville's Billy Budd paralleled the conflict between law and humanity that faced Lemuel Shaw when he was dealing with Anthony Burns' case. Something that I don't think Cover mentioned (not that it's neccessary given that Melville was Shaw's son-in-law), is that Melville dedicated Typee to Shaw. That works in support of Cover's Billy Budd thesis. I love book dedications; they tell you so much about authors' worlds. I have a very cool story about a dedication of a novel by a southern jurist in University, Court, and Slave – but I'm saving that for when the book finally comes out.
Anyway, as I was reading Peter Oliver's 1845 manual on conveyancing for a paper I'm working on on changes in trust doctrine in the antebellum era, I was surprised to see that he, too, dedicated his book to Lemuel Shaw. So … that leads me to a question, just how many books were dedicated to Shaw?
Well, I know of two. Damn–thanks to book.google, I now know of a third. Any guesses on the third?
Lemuel is a name? Anyway, according to his Wikipedia page (which may not be totally accurate to begin with) he was more of a criminal judge. How did his name come up in trusts?
I'm not sure how Peter Oliver knew Shaw, but the dedication is extreme — "Beloved as a Man and Honored as a Judge ; Steen in His Integrity and Pure in His Benevolence, This Work (By Permission,) Is Most Respectfully Dedicated."
Any guesses on the third? can tou tell me .i am not clearly