[Rarebooks] fa: FRANCOIS SOULES (and THOMAS JEFFERSON) - HISTOIRE DES TROUBLES DE L'AMERIQUE - 1787

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, January 17. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/hso8ycb

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain


Francois Soules [and Thomas Jefferson]: Histoire des Troubles de l'Amerique Anglaise, Ecrite sur les Memoires les plus authentique; Dediee a sa Majeste Tres-Chretienne. Paris: chez Buisson, 1787. First edition thus. Four volumes, 8vo (20.5 cm), in early paste paper-covered boards, rebacked in modern cloth with gilt-lettered leather spine labels; [8], 379, [5] pp.; [4], 365 pp.; 420 pp.; 272, 43 pp.; with the half-titles and publisher's catalogue; four large folding maps. Sabin 87290; Howes S770; Goldsmiths'-Kress 13424; Smith Americana 1328; Holden Americana 41; Muller Americana 1632.

The second, much-expanded, and "best" edition of this contemporary French history of the American Revolutionary War and the events leading up to it (an earlier edition was published in London in 1785). Thomas Jefferson anonymously contributed revisions as well as material on Virginia and other states to this edition. "Sometime during the summer [of 1786] Jefferson met Soules and learned that the author was planning to bring out a revised and expanded edition of his history. In response Jefferson provided Soules with notes and comments on the first edition of the Histoire... Jefferson also supplied Soules with information regarding his efforts to reform the laws of Virginia during the Revolution — including his Bill for Proportioning Crimes and Punishments and his Act for Establishing Religious Freedom — which Soulés incorporated into the fourth volume of the 1787 edition...[etc.]" (Francis D. Cogliano, Thomas Jefferson: Reputation and Legacy. See also: William Howard Adams, The Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson). "The best written and most authentic history of the American Revolution written in French. The author had access to original documents, and Rochambeau and the French Minister of War read and revised the manuscript. The work has become extremely scarce in late years, especially the fourth volume with the maps" (Holden, Americana).