Landmark Books in All Fields
ItemID: #116653
Cost: $12,800.00

Essay on the Principle of Population

Thomas Robert Malthus

“ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF MODERN ECONOMICS”: IMPORTANT FIRST EXPANDED EDITION OF MALTHUS ON POPULATION, 1803, HANDSOMELY BOUND

MALTHUS, Thomas Robert. An Essay on the Principle of Population; or, a View of its Past and Present Effects on Human Happiness; with an Inquiry into our Prospects Respecting the Future Removal or Mitigation of the Evils which it Occasions. London: for J. Johnson by T. Bensley, 1803. Quarto, period-style full speckled brown calf, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, red morocco spine labels. $12,800.

Second and greatly expanded edition, the first to carry Malthus’ name, of one of the landmark works in economics— four times larger than the first edition and extremely important, embodying “Malthus’ mature views of his subject,” handsomely bound.

This 1803 edition, the first with Malthus' name, was four times larger than the first—"practically a new book" (Osler 1297). "Malthus was one of the founders of modern economics. His Essay was originally the product of a discussion on the perfectibility of society with his father, [who] urged him to publish. Thus the first edition (published anonymously) was essentially a fighting tract, but later editions were considerably altered and grew bulkier as Malthus defended his views against a host of critics… The Essay was highly influential in the progress of thought in early 19th-century Europe [and] his influence on social policy was considerable… Both Darwin and Wallace clearly acknowledged Malthus as a source of the idea of 'the struggle for existence" (PMM 251). "In 1803 Malthus published under his own name the stout quarto that embodies his mature views of his subject. The author confesses in his preface that he had taken too gloomy a view of human nature in his first essay… The achievement of Malthus was the exposition of the theory of population; and his name has been associated so closely with this theory that, like Darwin's, it has added a new adjective to the language of civilized peoples" (Palgrave II:670-1). The first edition was published in 1798. Garrison & Morton 1693. Kress B4701. Occasional marginal bracketing in pencil.

Only lightest scattered spotting. A lovely, near-fine copy, beautifully bound.

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