Felix O’Neill Finds Amazing Treasure at Irish Book Auction. He Will Be Interviewed on Steve Eisenstein’s Radio Show
Here’s the original email post from Felix to Steve about this amazing find of rare material:
Hi Steve…I hope all is well with you and family ….all is very well here in Ireland…I thought I would share this with you…I attended a Book Auction in a very rural part of Ireland last weekend, and they were selling 35, 0000 volumes of Books…It was to me Book Heaven…miles and miles of books most of the people who came to see them had no idea about the books…and guess what…I struck gold, there was this single book, very well trashed from the late 18th. century missing its covers and with no spine, I saw it before the auction and I all but had a heart attack, the book was in reality a series of 9 Pamphlets gather together into this book, probably in the late 18th. Century, I pick the book up and looked at the front title page, and I smiled, the first Pamphlet was by Thomas Paine and his signature was to the last page, I looked through the book and counted the Pamphlets, I put the book down, I was very excited, I knew what I saw and had. My notes on the Paine Pamphlets below…of the 9 Pamphlets 2 were by Thomas Paine, another 2 were by Wilberforce, on Slavery in 1790 , 1. on The Laws on British Parliament 1788, and 1 on Arts, Sciences, Agriculture, 1790, 2 more were Poets, Alexander Pope, 1780s and the last was on the Birmingham Riots of 1791..what a find I thought to myself, most of the books about 99% were rubbish, 1 % were interesting, my problem was to look for gold among the muck, and this I did, all my years of accumulation of my book knowledge paid off…I bough a few other books, including 1768 Samuel Johnson’s 8 Volume stunning set of Shakespeare Plays. With no internet bids I only spend one thousand dollars for about 50 books, what a steal….Tell you more when we next speak…enjoy the Summer, say hello to all including you lovely wife….Felix
PS. My details Note below on the two Thomas Paine Pamphlets.
1. Letter to the Addressers, on the late Proclamation, by Thomas Paine
No Publisher’s name on the Title- Page, but the name of H.D. Symonds to the last page of ads. So it could also be the elusive Publisher J. S. Jordan, (Jeremiah Samuel Jordan), Jeremiah Samuel Jordan published all his Pamphlet on light blue paper, If so, this is the very rare and non existence,1st. Edition of “Letter to the Addressers, on the late Proclamation”, by Thomas Paine which has forty pages and was published in London by the Publisher J. S. Jordan of No.166, Fleet-street. also in 1792; however, to the best of my knowledge that 1st. Edition does not exist, but I do think, (more research) this Pamphlet of 42 pages including title-page and the last ad page, bring this Pamphlet to 42 pages is by, Jeremiah Samuel Jordan, he was the Publisher of most of Thomas Paine’s works at the time, as was H.D. Symonds in Paternoster Row also of London, H.D. Symonds ads would appear on the back page of the Pamphlets by J. S. Jordan, that was normal, they were both friends.
The Printing of Letter to the Addressers, on the late Proclamation, by Thomas Paine, was untaken by both the Publishers Jeremiah Samuel Jordan and H.D. Symonds of London, which would have been the norm at the time, because it would require the printing in excess of 25,000 Pamphlets, a huge job at he time, it also would be one of many other Pamphlets and Books that were printed by both of them. Both printers done other printing for Thomas Paine, both were friends.
Anyway Published in London, in 1792 on very light blue paper by either J. S. Jordan or H.D. Symonds. 1st. Edition thus, original Pamphlet form of 42 pages, very light blue original wrappers within dark green and gold marbled paper wraps as covers. Untrimmed papers which is normal for any Pamphlet or Tract published at the time. Rear very light blue original wrapper with publisher’s advertisements for “Rights of Man” part I and part II, and other cheap editions of the above works, including the prices by the Publisher’s, H.D. Symonds, in Paternoster Row.
This Pamphlet is Thomas Paine’s reply to the controversy stirred up against both parts of his “Rights of Man” by the “Proclamations and Addresses” in “Corporations and rotten Boroughs” This Pamphlet, in which Paine discusses the reception of the two parts of his Rights of Man and continues his attack on the evils of the English Government, particularly as embodied in the writings and speeches of Mr. Edmund Burke, is essentially a third part of the Rights of Man itself. The late proclamation” refers satirically to the royal proclamation against seditious writings, issued May 21, 1792, and directed particularly against the second part of Paine’s Rights of man. Also this Pamphlet contains the final leaf of advertisements, which is often missing. Thomas Paine corrected the proofs while in Paris and sent them to London for publication to both J. S. Jordan and H.D. Symonds, both the Publishers, J. S. Jordan, and H.D. Symonds were prosecuted for publishing this work. “Paine here makes a brazen call for a revolution in England and outlines a plan for calling together a convention for the purpose of reviewing the whole mass of English laws and retaining all worthy ones, while letting the rest drop”
A Pamphlet or Tract is a small booklet or leaflet containing information or arguments about a single subject. A Pamphlet or Tract is also an unbound sheet of paper without a hard-cover or binding It may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called aleaflet, or it may consist of a few pages that are folded in half and saddled stabled (staples into the spine ) at the crease to make a simple booklet. The pamphlet form of literature has been used for centuries as an economical vehicle for the broad distribution of information. Also due to their low cost and ease of production, Pamphlets have often been used to popularise political or religious ideas. Ephemeral (Pamphlets or Tracts) and to wide array of political or religious perspectives given voice by the format’s ease of production, Pamphlets are prized by many Book Collectors, Research Libraries, Private Institutions such as Universities. Substantial accumulations have been amassed and transferred to ownership of academic Research Libraries around the world. Also Pamphlets or Tracts were printed on scarce paper at the time, so when finished were more often then not used as toilet paper, (toilet paper at the time was non existent,) or also used to start a home fire, so paper Pamphlets or Tracts rarely survived, hence there greater value.
Contemporaneous notes hand-written notes to the last blank page, before the final page of ads for other Thomas Paine Books is this, I copied exactly as written….
Line 1. At Chelmsford Sessions one
Line 2. Christopher Payne of Saffron Walden
Line 3. Bookseller was tried for selling
Line 4. Paine’s Letter to the Addressers
Line 5. an error in the indictment proved
Line 6. fatal to the Prosecution and honest
Line 7. Valiant was acquitted…..
2. Mr Paine’s letter to Mr. Secretary Dundas by Thomas Paine, 1792
This 1st. Edition, 16 page Pamphlet was Printed and distributed gratis by the Society for Constitutional Information. The Society for Constitutional Information, which was a British activist group founded in 1780 by Major John Cartwright, to promote parliamentary reform. The Society flourished until 1783, but thereafter made little headway. The organisation actively promoted Thomas Paine’s “Rights of Man” and other radical publications, After the British Government repression and the 1794 Treason Trials in October, in which the leaders were acquitted, the society ceased to meet. The Title-Page has no date but the page after the Title -Page has a printed note
“ At a Meeting of the Society for Constitutional Information, held at the Crown and Anchor, Friday June 15th. 1792. ——Resolve, That Twelve Thousand Copies of Mr. Paine’s letter to Mr. Secretary Dundas, be printed, for the purpose of being distributed to our Correspondents throughout Great Britain”This very rare Pamphlet has a few Contemporaneous notes hand-written names to the Title -Page, plus Thomas Paine’s name inked in, almost like a signature to the last page, page16, bottom right. The Contemporary hand-written name of John Jones, three times written, as a signature of one, John Jones, and two dates 1792 and 1799. (maybe Captain John Paul Jones) 1792? and his Son 1799?? A few slight tears but no damage to the text, page 9 and page 10 top centre of the pages.
The 2nd Edition of Mr. Paine’s letter to Mr. Secretary Dundas by Thomas Paine was published by J. Parsons, London 1792
Major John Cartwright wrote The English Constitution, which outlined his ideas including Government by the people and legal equality which he considered could only be achieved by universal suffrage, the secret ballot and equal electoral districts. He became the main patron of the Radical publisher Thomas Jonathan Wooler, best known for his satirical journal The Black Dwarf, who actively supported Cartwright’s campaigning. Major John Cartwright had sent a copy of The English Constitution to former President of the United States of America, Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson wrote back to Cartwright in July: “Your age of eighty-four, and mine of eighty-one years, ensure us a speedy meeting. We may then commune at leisure, and more fully, on the good and evil, which in the course of our long lives, we have both witnessed; and in the mean time, I pray you to accept assurances of my high veneration and esteem for your person and character”.
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