An Essay on the life of George Washington; Commander in chief of the American Army, through the Revolutionary War; and the first President of the United States

Worcester: Thomas and Sturvtevant 1807. Hardcover. 8vo (8.5" x 5.25"), original full calf. Frontis. port., vii, 552 pp. Early ownership inscription of "Curtis Stearns" in ink at front pastedown. CONDITION: Good, worn binding, .5" crack at front foot of spine, .25" loss at head of spine, dampstain on front pastedown and preliminaries, ink impression on ffep of ownership inscription, 2" tear at foot of pp. 1, light foxing throughout. First edition of this popular early biography of George Washington, written by important Congregationalist Minister and American Antiquarian Society founder Aaron Bancroft.

Published just eight years after the death of George Washington, this biography emerged from Aaron Bancroft's wish to provide "the great body of his countrymen" an accessible, one-volume "memorial" of the man "who was preeminently distinguished as Soldier and a Statesman." Bancroft, who graduated from Harvard in 1778 and was present as a minuteman at the battles of Lexington and Concord, settled in Worcester, Mass. in the mid 1780s. Although his dissenting religious views slowed his success, his "high character, ability and public spirit won him a widespread esteem which was heightened" by this "popular" and "often reprinted" biography (DNB). He played an important role in the foundation of Unitarianism, and became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a founder of the American Antiquarian Society. His friend John Adams praised his writings as "a chain of diamonds set in links of gold" (DNB). 

REFERENCES: Howes B86; Sabin 3096; Shaw & Shoemaker 12038; Dictionary of American Biography.