[Rarebooks] fa: HUGH BLAIR - LECTURES ON RHETORIC AND BELLES LETTRES 1804 - First American Ed.

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending Sunday, September 13. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/oh87wm3

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Hugh Blair: Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. Philadelphia: Manning and Morse, 1804. First American Edition. Two volumes, 8vo (22 cm), in full period marbled sheep, gilt-lettered morocco spine labels; 390, 394 pp.

Modest rubbing and wear to the boards, spines a bit sunned/darkened, some cracking to the joints but the boards are secure; contents toned, as is common of American books of the period; inconsistent paper quality resulting in some heavy browning and spotting to the last ten leaves of  vol. II; a few scattered spots elsewhere. Early ownership signatures, dated 1809 and 1810, of Charles Freeman of Bowdoin College.

An important figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, friend of Hume and Adam Smith, Hugh Blair (1718-1800) was a prominent church divine as well as Regius Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at the University of Edinburgh, the first chair of English Literature ever established. Blair's Lectures, considered the first great treatise on rhetoric and composition in English, were instantly popular, going through ten editions before 1806 in England alone, and remained influential for generations, particularly in the United States. In the course of the 47 lectures, Blair covers such subjects as Style, the Sublime, the Rise and Progress of Language and Writing, the Structure of Sentences, Figurative Language, Metaphor, Hyperbole, Eloquence and Public Speaking, Pronunciation and Delivery, Historical Writing, Poetry, Tragedy, Comedy, etc., etc.