[Rarebooks] fa: THOMAS PAINE - THE AGE OF REASON Part the Second 1796 - First Authorized Edition

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, May 22. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

http://tinyurl.com/j43xllv

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain

Thomas Paine: The Age of Reason. Part the Second. Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology. By Thomas Paine, Author of the Works intituled, Common sense — Rights of Man, part first and second — and Dissertations on First Principles of Government. London: Printed for and sold by Daniel Isaac Eaton, Printer and Bookseller to the Supreme Majesty of the People, at the Cock and Swine, No. 74, Newgate-Street, 1796. FIRST EDITION. Pamphlet, 8vo (20.5 cm), in modern wraps with printed labels; 8, 84 pp. ESTC T5796; Gimbel 98.

The first authorized edition in English. In the prefatory letter printed on the verso of the title-page, Paine complains of a previously published "forgery," of which "I can have no doubt but it is full of errors." Modest toning and spotting to the title and last few leaves, one leaf with a penciled marginal comment in a contemporary hand, otherwise very clean and fresh, and smartly bound in modern wraps with a hint of sunning to the spine. Loosely laid in is a typed description/receipt on the letterhead of Zeitlin & Ver Brugge, legendary Los Angeles booksellers Jacob Zeitlin and Josephine Ver Brugge.

First published in French in 1795 while the author was imprisoned in the Luxembourg, this is the second part, complete in itself, of Paine's deist argument against Christianity as well as the institutional atheism of revolutionary France. A lively and fascinating read even today, and surprisingly blasphemous: little wonder that it sealed Paine's reputation as a godless unbeliever. Typical of the high radical feelings of the time is the publisher Eaton's bold, nose-thumbing imprint: "Printer and Bookseller to the Supreme Majesty of the People."