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FRANKLIN, Benjamin. Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin: Consisting of His Life. , 1793.
Price: US$3300.00 + shipping
Description: FRANKLIN, Benjamin. Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin: Consisting of His Life, Written by Himself, Together with Essays, Humorous, Moral & Literary, Chiefly in the Manner of The Spectator. Dublin: Printed for W. Wogan, P. Byrne, J. Moore, and W. Jones, 1793. vi, (2), 303 pp. Frontis. port. Rebacked with orig. spine preserved, else a very good copy in contemporary calf with gilt-lettered red spine label. HOWES F-323. Franklin's most famous work is his Autobiography. It first appeared, translated into French, in Paris, 1791. The Private Life (London,1793) was the first English edition, a poor retranslation of the French. The Works, also London 1793, has a retranslation by Gibelon and edited by Franklin's friend, Benjamin Vaughan. This edition was ready for publication in 1791 but held up by the announcement of Franklin's grandson, William Temple Franklin, that he was publishing a edition. Ultimately, that edition was not published until 1818. In addition to the Autobiography this volume has over 30 other pieces by Franklin.
Seller: G.S. MacManus Co., ABAA, Bryn Mawr, PA, U.S.A.
Price: US$8500.00 + shipping
Description: First Edition - British. Octavo, late 19th-century three-quarter brown calf, of which the spine has been rebacked with the original leather and lettering retained, and with the original boards. With two unobtrusive ownership signatures. Uniformly very good condition with a scattering of foxing and slight evidence of use. The title page includes the following: ÒTo which are added some account of his public life, a variety of anecdotes concerning him, by M.M. Brissot, Condorcet, Rochefoucault, Le Roy, etc. And the eulogem of M. Fauchet, Constitutional Bishop of the Department of Calvados, and a member of the National Convention. This English expanded edition of Benjamin Franklin's renowned and widely read autobiography, originally published in Paris in 1791, a year after his death, is an eloquent, often humorous, practical, and astute observation of the social, political, and cultural spirit of his time. He wrote the first five chapters of his autobiography in England in 1771, picked it up again in 1784-85 while he was living in Paris, and completed it in 1788 when he returned to the United States. Franklin concludes his writing in 1757 when he was 51 years old. Bound in is a 147 page copy of William FalconerÕs best-selling poem ÔThe Shipwreck,Õ published in London, printed for T. Cadell, in 1769, third edition, corrected. Falconer was a merchant seaman, and had survived a shipwreck as a young man, only to suffer another accident at sea in 1769, and drowned.
Seller: James Pepper Rare Books, Inc., ABAA, Santa Barbara, CA, U.S.A.