THE LIFE OF THE LATE JOHN ELWES, ESQUIRE; Member in Three Successive Parliaments for Berkshire by Topham, Edward - 1815

Poughkeepsie: Paraclete Potter; P. & S. Potter, Printers, 1815. 12mo. (Leaves 14.5 x 8.5 cm.) 89 pages, plus woodcut frontispiece portrait. [7] pages publisher's ads at rear (testimonials for Willett's “Easy Grammar of Geography“.) Contemporary leather spine with gilt lettering and fillets over marble paper-covered boards. Worn, head of spine chipped, pinhead size hole to the front joint, boards rubbed. Old adhesive remnant along gutters of the frontispiece and title with a very slight impact on the edge of the woodcut. Moderate foxing throughout with a few heavier spots in the early leaves. A good copy. Early name ("J. Coit") at the head of the title page. First of this Poughkeepsie edition and perhaps the third American edition overall. The title page states "from the second London edition," which, like the first edition, was issued in 1790. The first American edition (N.Y.) was also issued in 1790 and was followed by a Philadelphia edition of 1791. John Elwes (born Meggott, 1714-1789), a wealthy English real estate developer and a Member of Parliament (1772-1784), was a noted eccentric and an infamous miser. Though he often lent money too liberally, gambled compulsively, and lost a fortune in speculation, his personal spending was frugal in the extreme, and it has been suggested that he served as the inspiration for Dickens's character, Ebenezer Scrooge. In his later years, Elwes "would now allow himself no fire, he went to bed as soon as the day closed, to save a candle; and had begun to deny himself even the pleasure of sleeping in sheets. In short, he had now nearly brought to a climax the moral of his whole life -- the perfect vanity of wealth" (p. 68). The publisher and printer of this edition, Paraclete Potter (1784-1858) was the publisher and editor of the “Poughkeepsie Journal“ from 1806 to 1834. Potter “was a Federalist in politics; and, for a time, his journal was the State-paper. The little reading-room, in the rear of the bookstore, was, for many years, the favorite assembling place of many men whose names are noted in our State history . . . “ (unsigned article from the “Albany Argus“ qtd. in “Historical Magazine“, 1872-1873, p. 241). “Potter also brought distinction to his town by doing an extensive business in the publishing and selling of books” (McMurtrie, “A History of Printing in the United States“, vol. 2, p. 187). He sold his business in 1834 and, in 1841, settled Milwaukee, Wisc., where he spent the rest of his days. Ref. Oxford DNB. American Imprints 36102.