search results

click here to use our advanced search
Found 84 books(s). Showing results 1 thru 10.
  • results per page
  • sort by
  • topics
Journal of the Proceedings of the Congress

“A BOOK OF THE GREATEST RARITY”

(CONTINENTAL CONGRESS). Journal of the Proceedings of the Congress. Philadelphia, 1774. First edition, first issue, of the first official journal of the Continental Congress, one of the earliest publications of the American government, “a book of the greatest rarity.” Also presenting for the first time an attempt to design a seal to “represent emblematically a united nation” in America. An excellent copy in contemporary calf with half title. $65,000.

Read More
Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston

"IT WAS NOT EXPECTED… THAT SUCH AN OUTRAGE AND MASSACRE…WOULD HAVE BEEN PERPETRATED: RARE AND IMPORTANT CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNT OF THE 1770 BOSTON MASSACRE, THE EARLIEST BOSTON PRINTING TO BE SOLD IN AMERICA

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) (BOWDOIN, James). A Short Narrative of the Horrid Massacre in Boston. Boston, Printed, by Order of the Town, by Messirs. Edes and Gill; And Re-printed for W. Bingley… London, 1770. [Actually printed in Boston by Edes and Gill in July, 1770].

Extremely rare and important July 1770 Boston printing of this contemporary and influential account of the Boston Massacre, originally commissioned and ordered to be printed by the Town of Boston. Though the title page bears a London imprint, this edition was actually printed and sold in Boston to circumvent the American distribution ban (put in place so as not to prejudice the jury hearing the trial of the soldiers), and as such was the earliest Boston printing to be sold in America. $35,000.

Read More
History of the Origin, Progress, and Termination of the American War

"THE BEST CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNT OF THE REVOLUTION FROM THE BRITISH SIDE"

STEDMAN, Charles. History of the Origin, Progress, and Termination of the American War. London, 1794. Two volumes.

First edition of Stedman's massive contemporary two-volume History of the American Revolution—"the standard work on the subject"—containing 15 military maps and plans (11 folding, the largest nearly 20 by 30 inches), a handsome copy in contemporary tree calf boards. $22,000.

Read More
American Museum, or Repository of Ancient and Modern Fugitive Pieces

THE FIRST SERIAL PRINTING OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION

(CONSTITUTION) CAREY, Mathew, editor. American Museum, or Repository of Ancient and Modern Fugitive Pieces. Philadelphia, July-December, 1787.

First edition of a true American classic: Mathew Carey's American Museum for 1787 (Volume II: Nos. I-VI), containing in the September issue the first serial printing of the U.S. Constitution and featuring the first serial printings of the first six Federalist papers issued outside of New York City, in original marbled boards. $18,500.

Read More
History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence

“THE FIRST FULL-SCALE HISTORY OF THIS WAR BY AN AMERICAN”

GORDON, William. History of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence. London, 1788. Four volumes.

First edition of Gordon’s contemporary 1788 History, a landmark four-volume work by “one of the most impartial and reliable of the numerous historians of the American Revolution” (Sabin), extensively researched with the aid of Jefferson, John Adams and Washington, among others, containing nine engraved folding maps of the United States east of the Mississippi River; Boston; New York Island; the Jerseys; New Hampshire and Vermont; the Carolinas and part of Georgia; Charleston; Virginia, and Yorktown, with scarce "List of Subscribers" including Founding Fathers Washington, Jefferson and John Adams, handsomely bound in contemporary tree calf. $17,500.

Read More
Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger of New-York

"SYMBOL OF THE FREE PRESS AS A BULWARK AGAINST TYRANNY"

(ZENGER, John Peter). Case and Tryal of John Peter Zenger of New-York. London, 1738.

Second English edition (first published in New York in 1736) of the landmark trial of John Peter Zenger that produced "one of the famous decisions in legal history," pivotal to "the creation of the Bill of Rights and freedom of the press… had a lasting impact on the development of a libertarian ideology in both England and America," soundly viewed as "one of the famous decisions in legal history, establishing the epochal doctrine of the freedom of the press"—"one of the most important events of colonial times," a splendid copy, handsomely bound. $16,000.

Read More
English Liberties

ENGLISH LIBERTIES “HAD MORE TO DO WITH PREPARING THE MINDS OF AMERICAN COLONISTS FOR THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION THAN… COKE, SIDNEY AND LOCKE”

CARE, Henry. English Liberties. Providence, Rhode-Island, 1774.

1774 American edition of Care's immensely influential English Liberties, preceded only by the 1721 Boston edition, issued not long after the Boston Tea Party and the same year as the First Continental Congress, with printings of the Magna Charta, the Habeas Corpus Act (1769)—"a second Magna Charta"—and foundational texts on jury trials, "principally designed for America," containing printing of the preface to the 1721 edition proclaiming "when liberty is once gone, even life itself grows insipid," with rear list of Subscriber's Names. $13,500.

Read More
State of the Expedition from Canada

"LET ALL NEW ENGLAND RISE AND CRUSH BURGOYNE" (WASHINGTON)

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION) BURGOYNE, John. State of the Expedition from Canada. London, 1780.

First edition of British officer Burgoyne's dramatic justification of his 1777 defeat by American Revolutionary forces at Saratoga. Intended to win the war for the British, it became "the turning point" in the war that "brought France openly into the struggle. And it led to a change in the British command and a fundamental alteration in strategy" (Wood, American Revolution), containing six large engraved folding maps and plans with handcolored details, two with hinged overslips illustrating changes in troop positions and movements, handsomely bound. $13,500.

Read More
Extracts from the Votes and Proceedings

RARE AND IMPORTANT 1774 AMERICAN (NEW LONDON, CONNECTICUT) PRINTING, “THE BEST PRINTED EDITION” OF THIS IMPORTANT FORERUNNER TO THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE: WITH THE EXTREMELY SCARCE QUEBEC ADDRESS AND THE FIRST PUBLISHED APPEARANCE, IN BOOK FORM, OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL CONGRESS’ RESPONSE TO THE SUFFOLK RESOLVES

CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. Extracts from the Votes and Proceedings. New-London, 1774.

Rare 1774 New London printing of this “forerunner of the Declaration of Independence,” extracts from the extraordinary proceedings of the first Continental Congress, published by order of the Congress. This unique printing also contains the very scarce Quebec address, and the landmark earliest publication, in book form, of the Continental Congress’ response to the Suffolk Resolves of Massachusetts. $12,500.

Read More
Search and refine these results Click here