The Works. Complete in Seven Volumes.
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1836. Item #1224 Seven volumes. 8vo. 205 x 130 mm., [8 x 5 inches]. Bound in brown publisher’s floral patterned textured cloth, title gilt at head of spine; corners a bit bumped, head of spine of a few volumes with minor chips, otherwise a very attractive copy. Second American edition of the Complete Works of Hannah More (1743-1833) published by Harper, a two volume set by the same publisher appeared the previous year. The first English edition of the Works appeared in 1830. Very attractive copy in original publisher’s cloth, of one of Great Britain’s most prolific and beloved authors. The American edition includes all of her writings that appeared in the 11 volume English edition, plus the biography of Miss More by William Roberts, originally published in 1834. Hannah More was an independent, self-confident, and ground breaking author, who avoided convention and began and sustained a literary career that lasted decades. Poet, playwright, memorialist, teacher, and editorialist, Hannah More’s career spanned the age of Johnson through the Romantics and beyond. Her consistent message of religiosity and patriotism to God and Country fostered a loyal and vast audience who supported her work and brought her independence, a rare commodity for women at the time. “The sale of many of her religious and moral tracts has been very large. Of the Cheap Repository series, 2,000,000 copies were sold in the first year; and more than 150,000 of one of the best of them, the excellent story of the Sheperd of Salisbury Plain have been put into circulation. Nor must her many political tracts in defense of the English Constitution against the Revolutionary party be passed over with respectful remembrance.” Allibone, S. Austin. A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors, V. II, pp. 1360-61.
Price: $550.00