“FIRST IMPORTANT HISTORICAL WORK BY AN AMERICAN WOMAN”: FIRST EDITION OF WARREN’S FAMOUS HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1805
WARREN, Mercy. History of the Rise, Progress and Termination of the American Revolution Interspersed with Biographical, Political and Moral Observations. Boston: Printed by Manning and Loring for E. Larkin, 1805. Three volumes. Octavo, contemporary full brown tree sheep sympathetically rebacked to match original spines and red morocco spine labels.
First edition of Mercy Warren’s pioneering three-volume history, offering a rare “insider’s view of the Revolution,” begun in the earliest days of America’s struggle for independence, very scarce in contemporary tree sheep boards.
Mercy Warren, the premiere first-generation Revolutionary historian, possessed "the most systematic understanding of the relationship between ideology and ethics, the best developed interpretation of how corruption operated in history, and the clearest insight into the historian's role as a social and political critic" (William and Mary Quarterly). Hers remains the "first important historical work by an American woman" (Howes W122). Warren began her account at the earliest stirrings of the Revolution and "worked steadily on the three volumes that were finally published—when Warren was 77… Her work not only provided an insider's view of the Revolution, but also set an important precedent for women authors" (Weatherford, American Women's History, 365). Warren expertly drew upon the knowledge of key figures such as her husband, politician James Warren, and her brother James Otis, famous for his phrase, "taxation without representation is tyranny," and regularly she corresponded with notables such as Samuel Adams, Abigail Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who owned a copy of her History and commented, "I have long possessed evidence of her high station in the ranks of genius" (The Library of Thomas Jefferson 508). Howes W122. Sabin 101484. Shaw & Shoemaker 9687. Sowerby 4439. Volume I with penciled owner inscription to title page, early inked owner signature above first text page.
Interiors generally fresh with light scattered foxing, minor occasional marginal dampstatining, occasional expert paper repairs. Extremely good, scarce in contemporary tree sheep boards.