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First American Edition. Hard cover, 12 mo,--lacking boards and half title--the cloth spine with remnants of an onlaid leather label, now illegible. Light blue end papers, vi, 298pp. Includes frontispiece plus additional seven woodcut engravings within text as chapter headers and footers. Copyright 1835 John Allen and Co., Massachusetts. Stereotyped by Shepard, Oliver and Co., No. 3 Water Street, Boston.**CONDITION: Fair. Boards lacking, title to spine illegible. Signs of old water damage affect the upper margins, foxing to text. Old ink pen doodle to title page. A few losses or small dog ears at outer corners. However, the text block of this scarce and important item remains square and intact, inviting rebinding.**A devoted abolitionist in the circle of William Lloyd Garrison, as well as a social reformer, juvenile author and historical novelist, Medford, Massachusetts Author Lydia Maria Francis Child's (1802-1880) work is scarce in the original American First Edition. Her influence is perhaps best noted as the work was produced the same year in a British edition by publishers Simpkin Marshall, undergoing at least five editions until 1845. (Perhaps Child's views were influenced by the writings of Englishwoman Mary Wollstonecraft, whose1792 "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" called for women's economic and educational equality.) Other of Child's works underwent numerous editions, such as the popular home economic title "The Frugal Housewife" of 1829. But she also penned more directly abolitionist titles, such as "Authentic Anecdotes of American Slavery," produced the same year as this title for sale, and printed in this bookseller's hometown of Newburyport Massachusetts by C. Whipple at 2 State Street. Definitely an important Massachusetts woman author and early feminist worthy of further study. **REFS: Shaw & Shoemaker 30898 (this exact edition). Sabin 12712 (he lists the fifth edition only). H. Stevens (1969) lists 9 items of this author's works, including a fifth edition of this title, in his "Catalogue of American Books in the British Museum," primarily of her abolitionist writings. Scarce.
Ref: MASBO 9258
$245.00