27 résultats
1787256660New York: Samuel Loudon 1787. First. hardcover. very good. Illustrated with 2 plates one torn and one edgeworn and 1 table torn and with some paper loss. 602 pages with continuous pagination. Thick 8vo contemporary leather-backed boards with red label well-worn but sound and attractive. New York: Printed by Samuel Loudon and sold for the printer by Messieurs Berry and Rogers Hodge Campbell Allen and Greenleaf December 1787 - July 1788. 8 of 12 issues bound together. First editions. Some light toning and foxing and a handful of contemporary ink marginalia still a very good copy of these scarce American periodicals edited by Noah Webster. OCLC list NO physical copies in any library.<br/><br/> Issues include: moral fiction curiosities travel descriptions of unusual or exotic places science religion biographical anecdotes poetry etc. A section of European and American current events marriages and deaths concludes each issue.<br/><br/> Samuel Loudon unknown books
17933069Hartford: Hudson and Goodwin 1793. First edition. Bound to style in modern quarter calf over marbled boards with morocco label to spine. Light scattered foxing largely concentrated at the preliminaries. Small tear to the blank inner corner of A2. Contemporary inscription to the footer of title page: "Sold in London by Chas. Delly price 1/6." Charles Delly a UK printer and bookseller active in the 1780s was clearly importing American titles to sell in his shop. Collates complete 5 6-56. An important and scarce work the only other copy to appear at auction came up disbound at Swann in 1982.<br/><br/>Best known as the lexicographer responsible for his American Dictionary of the English Language Noah Webster has been called "the father of American scholarship and education" Mason. He was also a committed abolitionist helping to found the Connecticut Society for the Abolition of Slavery in 1791. In the present work Webster argues that "slavery in all its forms and varieties is repugnant to private interest and public happiness of man." Providing a brief historical view of slavery Webster shows that across time and place the practice of enslaving people produces the same deleterious effects. "The actual produce of a country is nearly in an exact proportion to the degree of freedom enjoyed by its inhabitants." And he uses Ireland and Connecticut as examples that illustrate "the superior productiveness of the labor of freemen who work for their own benefit." Despite these progressive views Webster's essay is also heavily marked with the systemic racism that has undercut the momentum of many American social movements; and he problematically asserts the "laziness of slaves" in America commenting that "the blacks are so remarkable for their inaction their want of fore-sight and their disinclination to improvement." Unable to imagine the rich social movements that would emerge from enslaved people's descendants Webster places the responsibility for abolition on white Americans both for economic and moral good. "If that nation is the happiest which with industry enjoys a full supply of the comforts and conveniences of life then the government and those institutions which distribute and secure." <br/><br/>ESTC W31814. Evans 26448. Hudson and Goodwin unknown books
