[Rarebooks] fa: ABRAHAM TUCKER & WILLIAM HAZLITT - THE LIGHT OF NATURE PURSUED 1807 - Fine Binding

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, June 7. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/qfzvn76

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Abraham Tucker [William Hazlitt, editor]: An Abridgment of The Light of Nature Pursued… Originally Published in Seven Volumes, Under the Name of Edward Search, Esq.. London: Printed for J. Johnson… by T. Bensley, 1807. FIRST EDITION; 8vo (21.5 cm), bound in later full tree calf with borders and spine elaborately tooled in gilt, gilt-lettered morocco spine label, page edges gilt and gauffered with an intricate design of flowers and vines, marbled endpapers; xlvii, [5], 529, [1] pp. Keynes 3; NCBEL III, 1231.

Hazlitt had published only two previous works, an unsuccessful philosophical essay and an equally disregarded political pamphlet, when he was commissioned by the publisher Johnson, at the behest of William Godwin, to edit and abridge Tucker's monumental work of philosophy, The Light of Nature Pursued, originally issued in seven volumes between 1768-78. Hazlitt also wrote the preface and the brief life of Tucker that precede the main body of the text. He signed the preface, "The Author of An Essay on the Principles of Human Action," his own philosophical work, whose failure he was still bitter about.

Modest wear to the corners of the boards; front and rear joints repaired/reinforced; rear board standing slightly taller than the front; some intermittent browning to the first 50 leaves or so (including the title-page) due to the inferior quality of the paper; one leaf of the preface with a closed tear to the fore-edge; occasional scattered light spotting, but the contents are generally quite bright and fresh. Front paste-down with the armorial bookplate of Sylvain van de Weyer (Belgian minister to the Court of St. James and Prime Minister of Belgium from 1845-46). A handsome copy of a surprisingly uncommon book.