THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS PAINE, Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Congress of the United States of America, in the Late War
Albany, NY: Charles R. and George Webster, (1792). First Edition. Hardcover. Small quarto (5" x 7-3/4") bound in original sheep with a gilt-lettered burgundy morocco spine label; xii, 60, [2], 186, 41, [3], vi-vii, [2], 10-70, [2], 24, [2], 124, [2] pages. Contains 1. Common Sense; Addressed to the Inhabitants of America (Albany: Re-Printed, by Charles R. and George Webster, 1791); 2. The Crisis: In Thirteen Numbers. Written During the Late War (Albany: Printed & Sold, by Charles R. & George Webster, 1792); 3. Public Good: Being an Examination into the Claim of Virginia, to the Vacant Western Territory, and of the Right of the United States to the Same (Albany: Printed by Charles R. & George Webster, [n.d.]). 4. Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal, on the Affairs of North-America (Albany: Printed by Charles R. & George Webster, [n.d.]). 5. Letters, by the Author of Common Sense. First, to the Earl of Shelburne. Second, To Sir Guy Carlton. Third, To the Authors of “The Republican,” a French Paper. Fourth, To the Abbe Syeyes (Albany: Printed by Charles R. & George Webster, 1792). 6. Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke’s Attack on the French Revolution. The Fourth American Edition (Albany: Re-Printed, by Charles R. and George Webster, [n.d.]). The first collected American edition of “The Crisis,” the first time individual numbers were printed together in America. “Crisis” as issued with page 180 misnumbered 178 and Numbers 10 and 12 omitted, as the printers were unable to obtain a copy of the text. Of the articles in “The Crisis,” only 5 were issued in pamphlet form, with the others appearing only in newspapers. After publishing articles numbered I-IX, Paine did not assign number X, though in its place he published “The Crisis Extraordinary”, which was followed by number XI. He skipped number XII and called the final article in the series “The Last Crisis, Number XIII.” Although 9 parts are listed on the general title page, 4 of them--the Letters in Section 5 above--are included as one part. HOWES P-34 states that the First Edition consists of 7 separately paginated sections totaling 517 pages, and the Second Edition consists of 9 sections totaling 623 pages. This copy has 9 sections totaling 517 pages. Signed on the title page by a listed subscriber, John Williams of Salem, in 1793, with an interesting small printed bookplate of the table of contents of the book. The first half of the "Rights of Man" is more browned than the rest of the book's text, but generally clean overall in a nice original binding with some loss at the spine tips, mainly the head, and minor worming to the front cover. Very Good to Near Fine. Item #021252
Price: $7,500.00