- 138
[Paine, Thomas]
Description
2 works in one volume, 8vo in half-sheets (7 3/4 x 4 3/4 in.; 199 x 121 mm). Sense: Title-page a bit browned, some soiling and staining throughout, small marginal ink-burn to C3. Sequel: First four quires printed on blue paper; scattered foxing and staining. Early twentieth-century calf, contemporary red edges; extremities rubbed.
Literature
Condition
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Catalogue Note
A scarce later issue—or Irish piracy—of Bradford's "New Edition," containing Paine's additions and the publisher's important preface. The impact of Common Sense on the course of American independence can scarcely be exaggerated. Thomas Paine's stirring renunciation of the sovereignty of George III, whom he termed a hardened, sullen-faced Pharaoh, found a remarkable reception among his new conutrymen. First published on 10 January 1776, Common Sense urged an immediate declaration of independence. Even John Adams, who disliked Paine and his methods, is reputed to have remarked that "without the pen of the author of Common Sense, the sword of Washington would have been raised in vain."
A dispute with his original publisher, Robert Bell, about the profits from the pamphlet led Paine to give his expanded edition to the patriot printer William Bradford. (Bell, and others, freely pirated the revised text.) Both Richard Gimbel, the bibliographer of Common Sense, and Thomas Adams, the bibliographer of pamphlets about the American Revolution, speculate that this edition might actually have been printed in Dublin. The fact that this copy is bound with a Dublin printing of the anonymous Sequel adds at least a modicum of circumstantial support to this theory.
In a postscript to the author's introduction, Bradford wrote that "The Publication of this new Edition hath been delayed, with a View of taking notice (had it been necessary) of any Attempt to refute the Doctrine of Independence: As no Answer hath yet appeared, it is now presumed that none will, the Time needful for getting such a Performance ready for the Public being considerably past. Who the Author of this Production is, is wholly unnecessary to the Public, as the Object for Attention is the Doctrine itself, not the Man. Yet it may not be unnecessary to say, That he is unconnected with any Party, and under no sort of Influence public or private, but the influence of reason and principle."