“…WHAT A GENIUS I HAD WHEN I WROTE THAT BOOK!”: VERY SCARCE 1704 FIRST EDITION OF SWIFT’S TALE OF A TUB

[SWIFT, Jonathan]. A Tale of a Tub. Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind… To which is Added, An Account of a Battle between the Books in St. James’s Library. London: John Nutt, 1704. Octavo, contemporary full brown speckled calf, raised bands, elaborately gilt-decorated spine.

First edition of Swift’s first major work—“an antic reductio ad absurdum of learned discourse” (Angeline Goreau) and the brilliant beginning of his satirical career.

Swift’s “first and very important prose,” the three related works gathered in this volume— the Tale itself, The Battle of the Books and A Discourse Concerning the Mechanical Operations of the Spirit— have their origin “in the so-called quarrel between the ancients and the moderns. [Swift pours out] his already copious supply of contempt upon the whole silly controversy and, more broadly, upon the conceited complacency of modern scholarship, criticism and poetry” (Baugh et al., 859). “As the author states in the preface, sailors were accustomed to throw out a tub to divert whales from attacking their ships, so he was throwing out his book to divert the wits of the age from assailing the weakness of religion and government” (Rosenbach 27:459). Reflecting on this popular work later in his career, Swift reportedly exclaimed, “Good God, what a genius I had when I wrote that book!” (Rothschild, 544). First edition, with blank page (recto) and page of advertisements (verso) facing the title page; this copy with blank space before “Persons'” on page 320, line 10, as usual. (Teerink does not indicate priority; Rothschild calls this second state, noting an earlier state of this page in which the word “uterinus” is present in type). Without final blank leaf. Teerink 217. Rothschild 1992. Lowndes, 2558. Bookplates of collector and editor of the Pall Mall Gazette Henry Yates Thompson and Christopher Chancellor, one time general manager of Reuters and editor of Thompson’s Diaries (1971), with a presentation inscription from Thompson to Chancellor.

Text fine, with small tear to leaf I2, joints spine ends and corners expertly restored. A very desirable copy with distinguished provenance. Scarce.