1778. · Boston [i.e. Paris]
by [Lafayette, Marquis de]
Boston [i.e. Paris]: De l'Imprimerie du Congres, 1778.. 37,[9]pp. 19th-century half calf and green paper boards, corners tipped in vellum, spine richly gilt. Very clean internally. Near fine. A rare and interesting poem, carrying a false Boston imprint, and supposedly penned by the Marquis de Lafayette while wintering with George Washington and the Continental Army in January 1778. The poem, a sort of farewell from Lafayette to his wife, contains allegorical references to the struggle of the colonies for liberty, while the notes mention this struggle specifically. Although the imprint is "Boston," the piece was almost certainly printed in Paris, and the types and ornaments used seem distinctively French. Other evidence leading us to believe that it was not printed in America: George Washington's name is badly misspelled on the titlepage; he was quartered at Valley Forge, not at Lancaster, in January 1778; and the title says it was printed in Boston, "by the press of the Continental Congress," though the Congress was actually sitting at York, Pennsylvania (not far from Lancaster) at the time. "In a pamphlet published in Paris, 1790, by Jean-Baptiste Poupart de Beaubourg, entitled 'Mes onze ducats d'Amsterdam,' etc., etc., the author states that he is also the author of Lafayette's touching adieux to his wife..." (letter from Louis Gottschalk to Lawrence C. Wroth, in the John Carter Brown Library's bibliographical file, as quoted on OCLC).
The catalogue of the Roderick Terry sale in 1934 calls this "an excessively rare pamphlet." We are able to locate only six copies, at the New-York Historical Society, Yale, Cornell, Lafayette College, the John Carter Brown Library (which has the Terry copy, as well as an issue with forty-three pages), and the Library of Congress (located there by Echeverria & Wilkie). Rare and quite interesting. JACKSON, LAFAYETTE BIBLIOGRAPHY, p.201. SABIN 96990. ECHEVERRIA & WILKIE, 778/65. TERRY SALE (PART 2) 176. OCLC 34161985, 36140004. (Inventory #: WRCAM38337)
The catalogue of the Roderick Terry sale in 1934 calls this "an excessively rare pamphlet." We are able to locate only six copies, at the New-York Historical Society, Yale, Cornell, Lafayette College, the John Carter Brown Library (which has the Terry copy, as well as an issue with forty-three pages), and the Library of Congress (located there by Echeverria & Wilkie). Rare and quite interesting. JACKSON, LAFAYETTE BIBLIOGRAPHY, p.201. SABIN 96990. ECHEVERRIA & WILKIE, 778/65. TERRY SALE (PART 2) 176. OCLC 34161985, 36140004. (Inventory #: WRCAM38337)
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