“WE THE PEOPLE…”: EARLY BRITISH PRINTING OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

(CONSTITUTION) PARLIAMENT. The Annual Register, or a View of the History, Politics, and Literature for the Year 1787. London: J. Dodsley, 1789. Octavo, 19th-century full brown polished calf, raised bands, red morocco spine label. $1800.

Second edition of the Annual Register for the year 1787, containing an early British printing of the United States Constitution.

The Annual Register is widely recognized as an important source for the events relating to the creation of the United States of America. Many leading historians of the American Revolutionary period, including David Ramsay, James Murray, and William Gordon “borrowed heavily from the Annual Register” (Gephart 1016, 2565). With an early British printing of the “Articles of the New Constitution of the United States of America, entered into by a Convention of all the states held at New York, 1787” (289-98). First published by Robinson in 1787. Sabin 1614. Two small library inkstamps. Armorial bookplate of Cecil Foljambe, the first Earl of Liverpool, a key member of Parliament in the late 19th century.

Text fine; expert restoration to contemporary calf. An extremely good copy of this timely document in Anglo-American history.