THE PROVOST

The Provost is the best-known work of John Galt (1779-1839), a Scottish writer, entrepreneur, and political and social commentator known as being the first political novelist in the English language.

The Provost is an ironic look at the career of a small-town merchant and politician, James Pawkie. Set in Irvine, Scotland, it follows his career from humble apprentice, to shop-owner to land-owner as he also becomes involved in local politics. Eventually, he is elevated to the supreme position of local power, the Provost, where he uses his position and wealth to manipulate the residents of Irvine to do his bidding. Using a comedic touch, John Galt delves into the issues of use and misuse of power. Galt was a prolific novelist; The Provost, published in 1822, is heralded as his masterpiece.

This copy was published by T.N. Foulis in 1913 and is an extraordinary book. I expect that it was the only edition issued by this publisher.

It is light brown boards with black type on the cover and gold type on the spine. The dust jacket is of rough gray paper and the 358 pages are of a thick, creamy rough paper. What makes it extraordinary is the work that went into binding in the illustrations. There are 12 colour illustrations and each one is hand-glued to its own page, and those pages have been glued into the book. The entire book has been hand-done, meaning that this must be a limited edition copy.

The illustrations are by the well-known Scottish painter John Macdonald Aiken (1880-1961).

It is also in near-mint condition. There is a 1" pen mark on page 345, and the original owner has written his last name, very attractively, on the front endpaper. There is a tiny bit of shelf-wear to the top of the dust jacket. There is denting to the bottom of the front cover and the inside front cover has been professionally repaired. It is wrapped in a plastic Brodart jacket cover.

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