"RANKED WITH THE TREATISES OF LOCKE… ON THE NATURE OF POLITICAL LIBERTY" AND "A PROFOUND INFLUENCE ON REVOLUTIONARY IDEOLOGY"
(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) (CATO) [GORDON, Thomas and TRENCHARD, John]. A Collection of All the Political Letters in the London Journal… BOUND WITH: The Dreamer. London, 1721, 1721, 1721, 1721; 1754.
First editions of several early reprints of political essays published in the London Journal and bound together into one volume—including 14 which appeared under Thomas Gordon and John Trenchard's pseudonym "Cato," whose essays "ranked with the treatises of Locke as the most authoritative statement of the nature of political liberty and above Locke as an exposition of the social sources of the threats it faced" (Bailyn, 36), and whose thought proved an extremely important early influence on the American Revolution. Handsomely bound with a first edition of William King's 1754 satirical political allegory, "The Dreamer," which includes the first appearance in print of Jonathan Swift's poem "The Answer." $2200.
Read More