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Lot 311: 1791, Early Book by Thomas Paine

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Militaria Start Price:240.00 USD Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
Lot  311: 1791, Early Book by Thomas Paine
<b>American Revolution</b><hr><b>1791, Early Book by Thomas Paine “On the Affairs of North-America," Printed for J. Ridgway, London, England, Very Fine.</b>
Hardbound book, contemporary half-calf, 8.4" x 5.4," 242 pages, front cover detached. Written by Thomas Paine, who was Secretary for Foreign Affairs during the American Revolution; this account was penned in order to correct “mistakes" in the Abbe Raynal’s account of the Revolution. The full title reads: “A LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE ABBE RAYNAL, ON THE AFFAIRS OF NORTH-AMERICA. IN WHICH THE MISTAKES OF THE REVOLUTION OF AMERICA ARE CORRECTED AND CLEARED UP." Worn covers, 19th-century newspaper clippings are mounted to the front pastedown and endpaper, bookplate on verso of the title. Paine, the famous author of “Common Sense," and “The Rights of Man," takes aim at the Abbe Raynal’s errors in his history of the American Revolution: “...the Abbe Raynal... has occasioned him to mistake several facts, or misconceive the causes or principles by which they were produced; the following tract, therefore, is published with a view to rectify them, and prevent even accidental errors intermixing with history, under the sanction of time and silence."