"MANY OF MILL'S IDEAS ARE NOW THE COMMONPLACE OF DEMOCRACY"

MILL, John Stuart. Autobiography. London: Longmans, Green, Reader and Dyer, 1873. Octavo, original pebbled green cloth. $1000.

First edition, first issue, of Mill's "pioneering" autobiography, primarily written in the 1850s and "revised at the time of writing" by his wife, Harriet Taylor Mill, issued posthumously the same year as his death, a splendid copy in original cloth. With the bookplate and owner signature of Henry Malthus, son of famed economist Thomas Malthus.

"Few lives have been more closely scrutinized than that of John Stuart Mill" (ODNB). Through works such as On Liberty (1859), Considerations on Government (1861) and Subjection of Women (1869), "many of Mill's ideas are now the commonplace of democracy, His arguments for freedom of speech have never been improved on. He was the first to recognize the tendency of a democratically elected majority to tyrannize over a minority, and his warning against it has a contemporary ring" (PMM 345). "Mill's Autobiography, composed mainly during the 1850s but not published until after his death in 1873, was a pioneering essay in the literary genre of psychological self-analysis… it was carefully revised at the time of writing by his wife, Harriet Taylor, née Hardy," who died in 1858 (ODNB). First issue, with the advertising leaf and no errata. PMM 345 (notes). Bookplate and owner signature of cleric Henry Malthus, the only son and heir of famed economist Thomas Malthus. Although often intellectual adversaries, Mill and Thomas Malthus maintained cordial relations and both were members of the esteemed Political Economy Club (founded by Mill's father James Mill, with Malthus as one of the original 30 members).

Interior generally fine, cloth with minor wear, corners a bit bumped. An excellent copy.