[Rarebooks] fa: DANIEL DEFOE - LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF MR. DUNCAN CAMPBELL, DEAF AND DUMB - 1720

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

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Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

[Daniel Defoe:] The History of the Life and Adventures of Mr. Duncan Campbell, a Gentleman, who tho’ Deaf and Dumb, writes down any Stranger’s Name at first Sight: with their future Contingencies of Fortune. Now Living In Exeter-Court over-against the Savoy in the Strand. London: Printed for E. Curll: And sold by W. Mears and T. Jauncy without Temple Bar, W. Meadows in Cornhill, A. Bettesworth in Pater-Noster-Row, W. Lewis in Covent Garden, and W. Graves in St. James’s Street, MDCCXX [1720]. FIRST EDITION; 8vo (19.5 cm) in early/period paneled calf, rebacked with later calf, gilt-lettered spine label; xix, [5], 320, [8] pp; engraved portrait frontispiece by Price after Hill, plus three additional engraved plates (complete); 8 pp. of publisher's adverts bound in at the end (not noted in ESTC). Moore 432; ESTC T69700.

Though disputed, the authorship is commonly attributed to Defoe, with assistance, to one extent or another, from William Bond, John Ruddle and/or Eliza Haywood. This is the first edition, complete with the portrait frontispiece and three engraved plates (e.g., see UCLA Clark Library and Harry Ransom Center copies); the second edition introduced an additional plate as well as a different frontispiece; the title-page is a cancel (again, as in the Clark and HRC copies). Binding with bumping and wear to the corners, front joint professionally repaired; contents age-toned, with browning to a few text leaves and one of the plates; a few leaves with creases; occasional spotting and small stains; the bottom margin of one page with a neat little drawing of a sailing ship by an early hand; else generally quite clean and sound, firmly bound.

Remarkable — and perhaps not entirely factual — account of the life of Duncan Campbell (c. 1680-1730), a deaf-mute soothsayer and self-described prophet who emerged from obscurity in Scotland (possibly by way of Lapland) to become the toast of fashionable London society. "The blind Tiresias was not more famous in Greece than this dumb artist has been for some years past in the cities of London and Westminster " (The Spectator, no. 560). As interesting as the life itself are the supplementary chapters on the occult and supernatural phenomena, including: "An Argument proving the Perception which Men have had, and have, by all the Senses, as Seeing, Hearing, &c. of Daemons, Genii, or Familiar Spirits; A Philosophical Discourse concerning the Second-sight; A  Dissertation upon Magick under all its Branches, with some remarkable Particulars relating to Mr. Campbell's private Life; Objection[s] against the Existence of Spirits… [and] against the Existence of Witches." There is also a chapter describing "The Method of teaching Deaf and Dumb Persons to write, read, and understand a Language," accompanied by a plate.