Lorenzo

1804 · 97050 — Windham Connecticut: Printed by J. Byrne 1804. 1804. Good. - 16mo 5-7/8 inches high by 3-5/8 inches wide. Early full marbled tan calf. The covers are rubbed scuffed and stained. 164 pages. The front hinge is cracked and the book is lacking the front endpaper. The pages are toned and the first and last few pages are more heavily darkened. A good complete collated copy. <p>First edition.<p>The eccentric itinerant American evangelist Lorenzo Dow 1777-1834 is said to have preached to more people than any other of his period. A sickly child Dow was inspired by "religious speculations" in his youth. He joined the Methodist church and joined the Connecticut conference as a circuit preacher. Dow known to own but one set of clothes and whose long hair and beard were said to "never having met a comb" traveled on foot and horseback throughout the United States sometimes with his wife Peggy Dow. He carried little else with him except a box of Bibles which he would give away as well as the little money he earned which he would give to the poor. Although preaching a Methodist doctrine Dow also traveled to preach in England and Ireland as a missionary to the Catholics of that country. A controversy surrounding his introduction of camp meetings to England resulted in the formation of the Primitive Methodist Society. Dow would preach anywhere he could gather a crowd often announcing a year in advance where and when he would appear. He shouted screamed cried begged flattered insulted and challenged people while recounting stories and joking. Dow who preached against atheism deism Calvinism and Universalism was also a fierce abolitionist and his sermons were often unpopular in the South.<p>Shaw: American bibliography 6190. Windham, [Connecticut]: Printed by J. Byrne, 1804. hardcover