THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF AMBROSE GWINETT, APPRENTICE TO AN ATTORNEY AT LAW. WHO, FOR A MURDER WHICH HE NEVER COMMITTED, WAS TRIED, CONDEMNED, EXECUTED, AND HUNG IN CHAINS, IN OLD-ENGLAND; YET LIVED MANY YEARS AFTERWARDS, AND IN HIS TRAVELS FOUND THE MAN IN THE WEST-INDIES, ACTUALLY ALIVE, FOR THE SUPPOSED MURDER OF WHOM HE HAD BEEN REALLY EXECUTED.

[Bickerstaff, Isaac]:

Edité par [Connecticut?]: Printed for the Travelling Booksellers, 1798.

A propos de cet article

A rare early American printing of the apocryphal autobiography of Ambrose Gwinett, a popular adventure narrative in the United States and Britain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The true first publication date and author have never been established, although DNB attributes authorship to Isaac Bickerstaff, noting a copy at the British Museum bearing the following notation from an early owner: "Dr. Percy told me that he had heard that this pamphlet was a mere fiction, written by Mr. Bickerstaffe, the dramatic poet." Isaac Bickerstaff (1733 1812?) was an Irish playwright and librettist whose farces and comic operas were popular in the late 18th century. The earliest dated edition is 1770, and the earliest American editions include a Boston printing from 1782, located in only one copy at the Library of Congress, and Norwich & Philadelphia printings from 1784. Although there is no place of publication on the present copy, a comparison against a copy of The Prodigal Daughter (Hartford: For the Travelling Booksellers, 1799) supports the attribution to an American printer, most compellingly in the use of the same type and design for both imprint lines. The last page bears the ownership signature of the teenage David Sikes Jr. (1788 1864), a descendent of Richard Sikes, one of the first colonial settlers of Suffield, Connecticut: "David Sikes Jr.Of Suffield [Connecticut], Feb 14 1803." ESTC and OCLC locate copies at the American Antiquarian Society, Library Company of Philadelphia, Cornell, and Yale University, and there is one copy of this edition recorded in Rare Book Hub at a Henkels sale in 1916. ESTC W19275. EVANS 33418. Not in SABIN. SHIPTON & MOONEY 33418. DNB (online). OCLC 41917607, 54157811. Stab stitch binding, sewn into larger contemporary blue wrappers. Wrappers coming loose, somewhat soiled and rumpled, with later ink stamp to rear wrapper. Tanned, scattered soiling and chipping to edges, short edge tears not costing legibility; last leaf detached with minor losses, naively sewn onto the inside of the rear wrapper to charming effect, contemporary ownership inscription of David Sikes Jr. A good copy, in unsophisticated condition.

N° de réf. du vendeur 69154

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF AMBROSE GWINETT, APPRENTICE TO AN ATTORNEY AT LAW. WHO, FOR A MURDER WHICH HE NEVER COMMITTED, WAS TRIED, CONDEMNED, EXECUTED, AND HUNG IN CHAINS, IN OLD-ENGLAND; YET LIVED MANY YEARS AFTERWARDS, AND IN HIS TRAVELS FOUND THE MAN IN THE WEST-INDIES, ACTUALLY ALIVE, FOR THE SUPPOSED MURDER OF WHOM HE HAD BEEN REALLY EXECUTED.
• Éditeur: [Connecticut?]: Printed for the Travelling Booksellers, 1798.