"Take special care, I pray you, of a borrowed book"

[Speece, Conrad]

[VIRGINIA BINDING]. [BORROWED BOOKS]. The Mountaineer

Harrisonburg, Virginia: Ananias Davisson, 1818. Second edition, Revised and Improved. 12mo. vi, 5-240, [2] pp. (final endleaf excised). Contemporary full calf, brown leather label, gilt lettering. A little discoloration to the fore-edges of the text block; slightly worn; a little foxed throughout. Good. Item #3269

¶ CONTAINS STERN WARNINGS CONCERNING BORROWED BOOKS.

¶ “Take special care, I pray you, of a borrowed book.—I know that much use of a book, even in the most careful manner, must gradually wear it out. This is allowed for, of course. But a man of any taste hates to see his book soiled by dirty fingers, blank pages or margins scribbled by foolish hands, the leaves broken by being folded at the corners, or the binding shattered by negligent throws or fall. These are sore evils.” Essays on literary, political, and moral subjects (including a firsthand account of witnessing “the Eloquence of Patrick Henry”) from the Presbyterian minister and teacher Speece, first published in Isaac Collett’s Staunton [Va.] Republican Farmer between 1813 and 1816, and then collected and published in a 110-page edition by Collett in 1818.

¶ This copy with an early small stenciled ownership mark for an Ellis Wenger on the title page and front free endpaper, with a contemporary ink inscription for Abraham Wenger (repeated) on the front free endpaper with the note in that hand, “Mountaineer Written by the Rev. Speece, D.D. of Augusta County Virginia.”

¶ Howes S-822, wrongly calling this the "first collected edition" because it was "previously prd. in a periodical." This would be termed "first edition in book form." These essays were first printed in the Republican farmer of Staunton, Va., July 29, 1813, to July 18, 1816.

Price: $400.00