Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Price: US$230.99 + shipping
Condition: Fair
Description: A collection of papers from the Library of Useful Knowledge bound in one volume. DeMorgan is best known for DeMorgan's Theorem (!A AND !B) == !(A OR B), which forms the basis of the modern technique used to miniaturise complex digital circuits, and thus delivers the extremely high density computing power of the today's microprocessor. His work on probabilities is a land mark piece of mathematical theory that formed the basis of the actuarial calculations of life insurance policy risks. This is the rare first edition of this work, which appeared in the Library of Useful Knowledge. These were a series of learned papers prepared by the leading scientists and academics of the day, each being either 64 or 32 pages long ¿ and sold at low cost to provide a source for knowledge ¿for the working man¿. They were published by Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK). The series was purchased by Longman Green, and re-issued under various titles; often after additions were made by the original authors. Thus the better known work by De Morgan ¿An Essay on Probabilities, and on their application to Life Contingencies and Insurance Offices¿ published in 1838 is not the true 'First Edition' but an extended re-issue of this work. The other pamphlets in this collection were also reprinted by Longman Green in extended form, including the second pamphlet by De Morgan ¿On the Study and Difficulties of Mathematics¿ which formed the basis of his later mathematical works on algebra and geometry This books contains the following: 'On Probability' by Augustus de Morgan - 1st edition, 64 pages but lacking title page and a piece of the first page which has been torn at the top with slight loss of text to the top of page 2 of the paper; 'On the Study and Difficulties of Mathematics' by Augustus de Morgan, 1831, 1st publication, complete - 93 pages plus index and preface written by de Morgan in November 1831; 'Electricity' by Peter Mark Roget, written in 1827 for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain), 64 pages; On the Double Refraction and Polarisation of Light' by Sir David Brewster - Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (Great Britain) 1829, 64 pages; 'Mathematical Geography and Physical Geography' probably by John Lee Costock 64 pages; 'Animal Physiology' probably by S Smith - 1830 printed in 2 parts 128 pages, complete; 'Vegetable Physiology', S Smith, 32 pages but looks incomplete. The binding, half leather with marbled boards, is sound but worn and rubbed at the corners, on the hinges and at the top and bottom of the spine. The spine is rubbed and has a leather label with 'Probability & c' - suggesting that this group of papers was collated and bound for a particular reader. The contents, which include numerous diagrams and illustrations in the text, are in good order (apart from the damage to page 1 mentionned above). One of the preliminaries is detached and the endpapers are grubby and marked. The paper is lightly browned.
Seller: ecbooks, Orkney Islands, United Kingdom
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Description: 396pp. Duodecimo [18 cm] Original full leather with gilt bands on backstrip and leather label on backstrip. Very good. Light rubbing to extremities. Discoloring to first few leaves. Sporadic foxing throughout. Early Mormon content describing David Marks' visit to the Whitmer family farm in 1830, and his evaluation of the Book of Mormon and its Witnesses. David Whitmer was one of the "Three Witnesses." This is the earliest published description of the Mormons and Mormonism. Wonderful source material detailing life in the 'Burned Over District' and surrounding areas. Flake/Draper 5277. Howes M292.
Seller: Ken Sanders Rare Books, ABAA, Salt Lake City, UT, U.S.A.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Description: 396pp. Duodecimo [18 cm] Original full leather with gilt bands on backstrip and leather label on backstrip. Very good. Light rubbing to extremities. Name (contemporary) in ink on the front free endsheet. Early Mormon content describing David Marks' visit to the Whitmer family farm in 1830, and his evaluation of the Book of Mormon and its Witnesses. David Whitmer was one of the "Three Witnesses." This is the earliest published description of the Mormons and Mormonism. Wonderful source material detailing life in the 'Burned Over District' and surrounding areas. Flake/Draper 5277. Howes M292.
Seller: Ken Sanders Rare Books, ABAA, Salt Lake City, UT, U.S.A.
Price: US$1000.00 + shipping
Description: 396pp. Duodecimo [18 cm] Original full leather with a gilt stamped black leather spine label. Very good. The covers are rubbed and scratched. The corners of the covers are gently bumped. A three inch crack along the front joint has been professionally and skillfully restored. The underlying boards are exposed occasionally along the edges. There are numerous very tiny light stains on the edges of the text block. The hinges have been professionally reinforced. The endsheets are slightly stained. Several notations on the front pastedown. Sporadic foxing throughout. There are occasional small light stains on the pages. The pages are browned. Early Mormon content describing David Marks' visit to the Whitmer family farm in 1830, and his evaluation of the Book of Mormon and its Witnesses. David Whitmer was one of the "Three Witnesses." This is the earliest published description of the Mormons and Mormonism. Wonderful source material detailing life in the 'Burned Over District' and surrounding areas. Flake/Draper 5277. Howes M292.
Seller: Ken Sanders Rare Books, ABAA, Salt Lake City, UT, U.S.A.
Price: US$1332.00 + shipping
Description: 12mo. pp. 396. engraved frontis. portrait. contemporary tree calf (bit rubbed, browned throughout). First Edition. "The Author, a Free-will Baptist ,first came to Canada as a boy preacher in 1822. From 1827 to 1830, he made yearly trips to the London District of Upper Canada, holding evangelistic meetings in the streets and churches. His journal gives and interesting account of the Baptists in eastern Ontario in pioneer times." (TPL) The work is also an important Mormon item, containing the earliest account of the Book of Mormon and Mormonism from an anti-Mormon perspective, written one year following the books publication: ".A copy right was secured by Smith in his own name. The book contains about six hundred octavo pages of small print. Five thousand copies were published - and they said the angel told Smith to sell the books at a price which was one dollar and eight cents per copy more than the cost, that they 'might have the temporal profit, as well as the spiritual.'.the style is so insipid, and the work so filled with manifest imposture, that I feel no interest in a further perusal." (pp. 340-41) Sabin 44624. TPL 4952.
Seller: D & E LAKE LTD. (ABAC/ILAB), Toronto, ON, Canada
Price: US$2250.00 + shipping
Description: 396 p.; front. (port.); 20 cm. Transcript of section on Book of Mormon available on request. -- With second edition, 1846. This autobiography by a Free-Will Baptist of Jewish ancestry is notable as earliest known account of the Book of Mormon from a hostile perspective. (American imprints 8135; Flake, A Mormon bibliography 5277; Sabin 44624; Singerman, Judaica Americana 0514; Starr, Baptist bibliography M2921) -- TOGETHER WITH the enlarged edition, retitled: Memoirs of the life of David Marks, minister of the gospel; edited by Mrs. Marilla Marks. Dover, N.H.: Free-Will Baptist Printing Establishment, 1846. xi, [13]-516 p.; 18.5 cm. (Howes M293) -- Each book includes frontispiece and is bound in orig. brown sheep with leather title-piece (red, 1831; black, 1846), the 1846 volume with the upper joint rehinged. Housed in a quarter maroon buckram clamshell box with tan sides. From the 1831 account on p. 340-42 (reset with minor changes in 1846, p. 236-38): `Sabbath, March 28 [1830], I preached twice to a small assembly in Geneva [New York]. Next day, we attended a meeting in Fayette, and tarried at the house of Mr. [David] Whitmer. These affirmed, that an angel had showed them certain plates of metal, having the appearance of gold. I wished to read it [the Book of Mormon] but could not, in good conscience, purchase a copy, lest I should support a deception; so they lent me one, and I read two hundred and fifty pages; but was greatly disappointed in the style and interest of the work. The gospel was first preached openly, with power, in the sight of all men, and written afterwards; the `Book of Mormon' was first written, secretly, and out of sight of all men, except twelve, and preached afterwards.' VG orig.leather pair. Prior owners' signatures. Moderate foxing
Seller: Alec R. Allenson, Inc., Westville, FL, U.S.A.