THE ENQUIRER. Reflections On Education, Manners, and Literature. In a Series of Essays. by Godwin, William (1756-1836) - 1797

Philadelphia: Printed for Robert Campbell & Co. by John Bioren, 1797. viii, 387, [1 blank] pp. Scattered moderate spotting, title page laid down. About Good+ in modern calf. The utopian Godwin believed that "all rational creatures could live in harmony without laws and institutions...." [PMM 243]. "Through his influence on Thompson and Owen, Godwin contributed greatly to the early socialist movement in America. His opposition to revolution has caused him to be disdained by modern radicals" [Adams]. In this series of twenty-six essays Godwin discusses such diverse subjects as personal reputation, riches and poverty, the sources of genius, George Washington, the French Revolution, English style from the Elizabethan age to that of George II. FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. Evans 32197. Adams, Radical Literature in America 40.

London: G. G. and J. Robinson, 1797. First Edition. Hardcover. Four small, discreet library stamps within text, ink number on verso of title with some bleed through; library perforated stamp to half title and title pages. Corner of one page torn with no loss of text. Attractively bound with good margins in modern calf-backed boards; xii, 481 pages. An important work by this philosopher published the same year that his wife, Mary Wollstonecraft, died shortly after giving birth to their daughter and future author of FRANKENSTEIN, Mary Shelley. He would later have some influence on his daughter's husband, Percy Shelley. Published several years after Godwin's THINGS AS THEY ARE, which some regard as the first modern novel. Godwin, "the philosophical representative of English radicalism" (DNB), also had the distinct honor of reading Thomas Paine's RIGHTS OF MAN in manuscript.

London: Printed for G. G. and J. Robinson, 1797. xii, 481pp, [3]. With a half-title and a final errata leaf. Uncut in later paper boards, printed paper lettering-piece. Extremities lightly rubbed and discoloured. Inked ownership inscription of T. Woolner to head of title. The first edition of political writer and novelist William Godwin's (1756-1836) largely philosophical essays, perhaps best remembered as the inspiration for Thomas Malthus's ground-breaking work of demography, An Essay on the Principle of Population, published anonymously in 1798. Thomas Woolner (1825-1892), sculptor and poet, lifelong friend of Tennyson, and original member of the Pre-Rapaelite brotherhood. ESTC T94276.. First edition. 8vo.