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"When I consider our fellow subjects in America as rational creatures, I cannot but wonder that during the present wide difference of sentiments in the two countries concerning the power of Parliament in laying taxes and duties on America, no application has been made to their understandings ... on the contrary, whenever there is any news of discontent in America, the cry is, “send over an army or a fleet, and reduce them to reason!”
Lettres d'un fermier de Pensylvanie, Ben Franklin's copy
John Dickinson, 1769
Details
Lettres d'un fermier de Pensylvanie, Ben Franklin's copy
John Dickinson, 1769
[DICKINSON, John (1732-1808).] Lettres d'un fermier de Pensylvanie, aux habitans de l'Amerique Septentrionale. Translated from English by Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg with an introduction by Benjamin Franklin. Amsterdam, 1769 [but Paris].
Benjamin Franklin's copy of the most influential publication of the early Revolutionary period, with a later inscription to its author, John Dickinson—a sensational association. Originally released anonymously in the Pennsylvania Chronicle as the work of "a farmer," Dickinson's work did more than any other after Paine's Common Sense to unite the colonists against the British Crown. The Letters lay out an intellectual opposition to the Townshend Acts, which the British Parliament passed between 1767 and 1768 in an attempt to raise punishing taxes on the Americans. According to Howes, it is the "earliest serious study into colonial legal rights;" it also codified the essential American figure of the learned gentleman farmer, which has loomed large in the public imagination ever since.
Dickinson's tract circulated widely among the Thirteen Colonies and was almost immediately reprinted to meet demand. Ben Franklin (himself once speculatively identified as the author) arranged for its publication in both London and in this Paris edition, with a new preface written by him—presenting the American opposition to an international audience. The translator, Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, was an old friend of Franklin's and a staunch supporter of American independence. This copy may have been a gift from him to the Founder. It bears Franklin's shelfmark "C69 N23," verified by Edwin Wolf as from Franklin's library. After the posthumous sale of Franklin's books to Nicholas Dufief, the Philadelphia bookseller gave the present copy as a gift to the original author, probably circa 1802. A remarkable double-association copy—owned by two Founders by way of the fugitive Franco-American bookseller Nicholas Dufief—of one of the most influential works of the American Revolution. This copy epitomizes the intersection of book history and American history. No copies of this edition have been recorded at auction since the 1970s. Howes D-329 (the "earliest serious study into colonial legal rights"); Sabin 20045; Wolf and Hayes, The Library of Benjamin Franklin 860 (this copy, "acquired by William Reese for his private collection, 2001). See also Madeleine B. Stern, Nicholas Gouin Dufief of Philadelphia: Franco-American Bookseller 1776-1834 (1988) and Carl F. Kaestle, “The Public Reaction to John Dickinson’s Farmer’s Letters” in Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society (October 1968); Revolutionary Hundred 9.
Octavo (168 x 106mm). (Light even toning to some gatherings.) Contemporary mottled calf, edges marbled (worn at extremities with corners showing). Custom chemise and slipcover. Provenance: Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790 (shelfmark on f.f.e. acquired by:) – Nicholas G. Dufief, c.1776-1834, Philadelphia bookseller (gift inscription to:) – John Dickinson, 1732-1808 (shelfmark above Franklin's, similar to the one in Dickinson's copy of Locke, see lot 51).
John Dickinson, 1769
[DICKINSON, John (1732-1808).] Lettres d'un fermier de Pensylvanie, aux habitans de l'Amerique Septentrionale. Translated from English by Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg with an introduction by Benjamin Franklin. Amsterdam, 1769 [but Paris].
Benjamin Franklin's copy of the most influential publication of the early Revolutionary period, with a later inscription to its author, John Dickinson—a sensational association. Originally released anonymously in the Pennsylvania Chronicle as the work of "a farmer," Dickinson's work did more than any other after Paine's Common Sense to unite the colonists against the British Crown. The Letters lay out an intellectual opposition to the Townshend Acts, which the British Parliament passed between 1767 and 1768 in an attempt to raise punishing taxes on the Americans. According to Howes, it is the "earliest serious study into colonial legal rights;" it also codified the essential American figure of the learned gentleman farmer, which has loomed large in the public imagination ever since.
Dickinson's tract circulated widely among the Thirteen Colonies and was almost immediately reprinted to meet demand. Ben Franklin (himself once speculatively identified as the author) arranged for its publication in both London and in this Paris edition, with a new preface written by him—presenting the American opposition to an international audience. The translator, Jacques Barbeu-Dubourg, was an old friend of Franklin's and a staunch supporter of American independence. This copy may have been a gift from him to the Founder. It bears Franklin's shelfmark "C69 N23," verified by Edwin Wolf as from Franklin's library. After the posthumous sale of Franklin's books to Nicholas Dufief, the Philadelphia bookseller gave the present copy as a gift to the original author, probably circa 1802. A remarkable double-association copy—owned by two Founders by way of the fugitive Franco-American bookseller Nicholas Dufief—of one of the most influential works of the American Revolution. This copy epitomizes the intersection of book history and American history. No copies of this edition have been recorded at auction since the 1970s. Howes D-329 (the "earliest serious study into colonial legal rights"); Sabin 20045; Wolf and Hayes, The Library of Benjamin Franklin 860 (this copy, "acquired by William Reese for his private collection, 2001). See also Madeleine B. Stern, Nicholas Gouin Dufief of Philadelphia: Franco-American Bookseller 1776-1834 (1988) and Carl F. Kaestle, “The Public Reaction to John Dickinson’s Farmer’s Letters” in Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society (October 1968); Revolutionary Hundred 9.
Octavo (168 x 106mm). (Light even toning to some gatherings.) Contemporary mottled calf, edges marbled (worn at extremities with corners showing). Custom chemise and slipcover. Provenance: Benjamin Franklin, 1706-1790 (shelfmark on f.f.e. acquired by:) – Nicholas G. Dufief, c.1776-1834, Philadelphia bookseller (gift inscription to:) – John Dickinson, 1732-1808 (shelfmark above Franklin's, similar to the one in Dickinson's copy of Locke, see lot 51).
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