Black Book

WADE, John]

Beschreibung

[WADE, John]. The Black Book. Supplement to the Black Book; or Corruption Unmasked!! London: Printed and published by John Fairburn, 1823. iv,426 pp. 2 Vols. Orig. full morocco with gilt lettering, rules, and decorations on the spines. Light wear to corners, name stamps on the front endpapers of both volumes, lengthy marginalia by a rather impassioned defender of the Irish, else bright and nearly fine. While the first volume is sometimes found on the market, the supplement is quite scarce; sets in contemporary bindings are very difficult to obtain. Black was the preferred color of binding for this work. A note at the base of the advertisement leaf in the first volume reads as follows: "It is suggested to purchasers, for the sake of uniformity, and as being most appropriate to its name and contents, that the Black Book be bound in black." James Kirke Paulding's set with his signature at the head of both title pages and his engraved bookplate on both front pastedowns. His bookplate bears a likeness of the medal George Washington gave each of the captors of Major Andre, including Paulding's cousin, John Paulding. James Kirke Paulding (1778-1860) was an influential American author and the U.S. Secretary of the Navy during 1838-41. He was also a confirmed Anglophobe, whose father served as commissary to the New York militia and whose family had been forced to flee their Westchester County home during the Revolution. "Paulding's environment explains in part his excusable antipathy to England. Born in exile, he grew up in a region devastated by the British; nine of the Pauldings served in the American army; two of his relatives knew the horrors of British prison ships; his maternal grandfather was cruelly cut across the head by British soldiers, because he had refused to cry `God save the king!'" --DAB. At the time the present work was published, Paulding was serving as secretary of the Board of Naval Commissioners (1815-1823). He received this appointment after his book, The United States and England (1815) was favorably noticed by President Madison. In 1822, two years after the first volume of The Black Book appeared, he published a critical Sketch of Old England. His numerous other works included The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan (1812), a comic work on the 13 colonies and the American Revolu. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 54143

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Black Book

Einband: Hardcover