Letters of J. Downing, Major, Downingville militia, second brigade, to his old friend Mr. Dwight, of the New-York Daily Advertiser

New York: Harper Brothers, 1834. First edition, 12mo, pp. viii, [2], 245, [2], 236-240, 9, [7]; contains 29 "letters," with 28 listed in the table of contents; frontispiece and six plates; original brown muslin, paper label on spine; boards faded and rubbed, dampstain in gutter, text foxed, good. Much of the text, written in feigned backwoods dialect, centers on the National Bank controversy. See Sabin 84162 under Seba Smith, where this title is identified as a Seba Smith clone: "The wide interest which the Jack Downing letters created during the president's eastern tour in the summer of 1833 brought into the field many imitators, among whom a rival whose (truncated) success was even greater than that of Mr. Smith. This was Charles Augustus Davis... " See Sabin 84162-8 for a long and interesting account of Seba Smith, his imitator, Murray, and their shared alter ego, Maj. Jack Downing. Wright 1, 827; Sabin 18779. (Inventory #: 69846)