Printed and Manuscript Americana

First American Edition, Entirely Uncut and Partially Unopened

Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by Prichard and Hall, 1788. First American edition. 8vo. (iv), 244 pp.; lacking four-page ads at rear. With folding letterpress table of the Indian tribes of Virginia at front, full-page woodcut ("Eye-Drought of Madison's Cave") on p. 20, and letterpress tables in text. Quarter calf over contemporary or near-contemporary blue paper-covered boards, rebacked, red morocco spine label, spine and joints dry and cracked but holding, boards unevenly faded, chip at head of spine; endpapers renewed; text uncut and partially unopened; light scattered spotting and offsetting to text. Evans 21176; Howes J-78; Sabin 35897

A handsome, wide-margined, and uncut copy of the first American edition of the only full-length book published by Thomas Jefferson in his lifetime.
Written as a reply to questions posed by French diplomat François Barbé-Marbois, Jefferson first published this work in Paris in 1785 in an edition of only two hundred copies for private distribution. Due to popular demand, and to combat pirated editions, Jefferson published authorized French and English editions in 1786 and in 1787, respectively, which was followed by this first American edition in 1788. "During his long and productive life Thomas Jefferson wrote and published only one full-length book...Though he gave it a misleadingly modest title and was originally reluctant to publish it at all, the Notes on Virginia was eventually accepted as an important contribution to American letters and science, and it is recognized today as the best single statement of Jefferson's principles, the best reflection of his wide-ranging tastes and talents. It is, in short, an American classic." (Peden, p. v)