Americana - 49 - Bauman Rare Books “These Are The Times That Try Men’s Souls”: First Edition Of The Collected Writings Of Thomas Paine, 1791-92, Containing The First Collected American Edition Of The Crisis, A Very Rare Subscriber’s Copy, With A Distinctive Revolutionary War Provenance 45. PAINE, Thomas. The Writings of Thomas Paine, Secretary for Foreign Affairs to the Congress of the United States of America, in the Late War. Albany, New York, 1792. Octavo, contemporary dark brown tree calf rebacked and recornered. $9800. First edition of the collected Writings of Thomas Paine, printed in Albany in 1792, containing the important first collected American edition of The Crisis, with rarely found general title page and list of Subscriber’s Names, including great American leaders such as James Madison, this exceptional association copy signed and dated (“10/4”) by Paine. “For 230 years Americans have drawn ideas, inspiration and encouragement from Thomas Paine and his work” (Kaye, 249). This important early collection contains nine of Paine’s most significant writings, each separately printed with its own title page. All of the individually printed works are the first Albany printings. Included is the 1792 first collected American edition of The Crisis. One of Paine’s most seminal works, The Crisis consisted of 13 numbered articles, only five of which were issued in pamphlet form, the others appearing only in newspapers. This 1792 Albany printing of The Crisis is the first time the individual numbers were printed together in America. Sabin 58247. Henry Quackenboss, whose name is contained in the Subscriber’s List (x), fought as a colonel in the Albany Militia, 1st Regiment, and was a member of the Albany Committee of Safety. In 1779, he served as a Representative in the New York State Assembly and in 1812 as a presidential elector. Interior quite fresh with scant edge-wear, toning, early expert repair to lower corner of title page not affecting text, mild rubbing to contemporary calf boards. A memorable very good copy.
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