"THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE OF JULY 4, 1776, WAS DUE MORE TO PAINE'S COMMON SENSE THAN TO ANY ONE OTHER SINGLE PIECE OF WRITING": 1792 LONDON PRINTINGS OF COMMON SENSE AND RIGHTS OF MAN
PAINE, Thomas. Common Sense; Addressed to the Inhabitants of America. BOUND WITH: Rights of Man, Part the Second. BOUND WITH: Rights of Man. London: H.D. Symonds, 1792. Small octavo, period-style full speckled calf gilt, red morocco spine label, marbled endpapers..
1792 London printings of Common Sense and Rights of Man, issued together as Paine's role in the French Revolution and the recent publication of Rights of Man sparked renewed interest in Paine's revolutionary writings.
"Common Sense was by far the most influential tract of the American Revolution, and it remains one of the most brilliant pamphlets ever written in the English language" (Covenanted People, 27). "It is not too much to say that the Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, was due more to Paine's Common Sense than to any one other single piece of writing" (Grolier American 100 14). Relatively few editions of Common Sense appeared after 1776. However, Paine's role in the early years of the French Revolution, along with publication of the two parts of Rights of Man (1791-92), unleashed a storm of criticisms and defenses of Paine and timely reissues of his earlier writings—such as this 1792 London printing. Paine's Rights of Man (in two parts) is "the textbook of radical thought and the clearest of all expositions of the basic principles of democracy" (PMM 241). "The British Government now thought this work should be suppressed and issued a Royal Proclamation directed against it" (Gimbel-Yale 69). The publisher of these works, Symonds, was prosecuted for publishing Paine's works; in addition to a fine, he was sentenced to two years in jail. Common Sense first published in England in 1776; title page with no rule between Subject IV and "A New Edition"; page 9 with first word "have." Part I of Rights of Man first published in 1791, Part II in 1792—both were originally published by J.S. Jordan. Separately paginated, with separate title pages. Gimbel CS-73. Text fresh and crisp.