45 58GORDON, William. The History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of the United States of America. London, 1788. Four volumes. Octavo, contemporary full brown tree calf gilt. $17,500 “The First Full-Scale History Of This War By An American” First edition of Gordon’s contemporary 1788 History, a landmark by “one of the most impartial and reliable of the numerous historians of the American Revolution” (Sabin), containing nine engraved folding maps, with scarce “List of Subscribers” including Founding Fathers Washington, Jefferson and John Adams, handsomely bound in contemporary tree calf. Born in England, William Gordon arrived in Boston in 1770, already an ardent supporter of America’s path toward independence. “Gordon is deservedly reckoned as one of the most impartial and reliable of the numerous historians of the American Revolution” (Sabin). In researching this groundbreaking History, “Gordon took copious notes throughout the war, always with the intent of publication. Ambitious and talkative, he placed his networking energies at the service of history: he wrote and spoke incessantly with ‘those in the know,’ then incorporated what they told him within his narrative” (Raphael, Founding Myths, 252, 330n). “When Gordon finished his work in the mid-1780s, Boston printers vied for the rights to publish the first locally produced chronicle of the War for Independence. But the author chose to publish his magnum opus in England instead of America” (Raphael, 330n). This authoritative work is “the first full-scale history of this war by an American” (Howes). Text generally clean and bright with only light offsetting or spotting to a few of the maps, expert restoration to joints, spine ends and corners of handsome contemporary tree calf binding.
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