AMERICAN NOTES FOR GENERAL CIRCULATION

New York: Harper & Brothers, 1842. 8vo. 92 pages, plus [4] pages terminal ads. Text in two columns. Original printed wraps. 24 x 15 cm. Chip to dedication/contents leaf with loss of two words in table of contents ("System" in "Lowell and its Factory System" and the word "to" on another line), else fair only. Both wraps detached, creased, and marginally chipped with no loss of text. Early gift inscription at head of front wrap. Several leaves with corner creases. Moderate foxing and small, light dampstain throughout. Third American edition, published just one day after the first. The two preceding American editions were published as extras by New York newspapers ("The New World" and "Brother Jonathan"). Dickens' account of his highly-publicized travels in America during the first half of 1842. He toured the northeastern states and went by steamer down the Ohio and Mississippi as far as St. Louis and through the Great Lakes. His experience of the South was largely confined to his brief visit to Richmond and the vicinity. "Dickens praised many of America's public institutions but condemned the national worship of 'smartness' (that is, sharp practice), and attacked particularly the hypocrisy and venality of the American press. He also commented unfavourably on many aspects of American social life, notably the widespread habit of spitting in public, and, predictably, denounced slavery at some length." --Michael Slater in Oxford DNB. Howes D316.