Passages from the Philosophy of Herbert Spencer - Herbert Spencer - Bauman Rare Books

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Passages from the Philosophy of Herbert Spencer

Herbert SPENCER | Thomas B. MOSHER

Item#: 79800 We're sorry, this item has been sold

Passages from the Philosophy of Herbert Spencer

“PIRATE PRINCE OF PUBLISHERS”: MOSHER’S EDITION OF SELECTIONS FROM HERBERT SPENCER

(MOSHER, Thomas Bird) SPENCER, Herbert. Passages from the Philosophy of Herbert Spencer Chosen by Clara Sherwood Stevens. Portland, Maine: Thomas B. Mosher, 1910. Square octavo, original pale blue paper boards, paper spine label, original plain dust jacket, original slipcase.

First Mosher edition, one of only 750 copies, of selections from Spencer’s First Principles (on evolution), his Principles of Ethics (on the ethics of individual life), and his Principles of Biology, …of Sociology, and …of Psychology.

In addition to his contributions to the fledgling fields of sociology and psychology, Spencer integrated the principal themes of the science of his day with the general culture of the times. “It is a function that no one has performed since” (DSB). This edition of Spencer’s philosophies includes selections from his First Principles (in which he lays out the metaphysical underpinnings of evolution), his Principles of Ethics (on the ethics of individual life and on justice), and his Principles of Biology (on the specialized structures and functions of plants and animals). Literary publisher Thomas Bird Mosher has been praised as an American Aldus whose finely-printed and modestly priced editions “introduced Americans to ‘the literature of rapture” (William Fredeman). Alternatively, Mosher has been cursed as a literary pirate who exploited loop-holes in the prevailing copyright laws, in order to avoid paying royalties to the authors he published. Business ethics aside, books produced by Mosher are “elegant edifices, appropriate to the authors who inhabit them… He extended the idea of the total book to include its contents as well as the externals of paper, type, and binding, thereby achieving an organic unity” (Fredeman). Headpieces were designed by Charlotte Whittingham of the Chiswick Press. An additional 50 copies were printed on Japan vellum. Bishop 284. Hatch 505. Contemporary gift inscription.

Book fine, toning to original dust jacket. A near-fine copy in scarce original slipcase.

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Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid. By changing the areas of the plate that are exposed and the length of time the plate is submerged in the acid bath, the engraver can obtain fine and varying shades of gray that closely resemble watercolor washes. Although the name contains the word “tint”, this is a black-and-white printing process; aquatint plates can often be hand colored, however.
Armorial Used to describe a binding bearing the coat of arms of the original owner, or with bookplates incorporating the owner’s arms.
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Boards Hard front and rear covers of a bound book which are covered in cloth, leather or paper. “Original boards” refers to cardboard-like front and back boards, from about 1700 to 1840, used as temporary protection for books before their purchasers would have them bound. Of particular value to collectors as evidence of a very early form of the book.
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