Visions of America: The Stephen White Collection

8vo (229 x 138 mm). Later vellum-backed marbled boards.

FIRST FRENCH EDITION of Paine's Rights of Man, following the first English edition by about six weeks and reprints the original text as it appeared in the suppressed first English edition. "With a force and clarity unequalled even by Burke, Paine laid down those principles of fundamental human rights which must stand, no matter what excesses are committed to obtain them. It is a textbook of radical thought and the clearest of all expositions of the basic principles of democracy" (PMM). Howes P31; PMM 241.