LETTERS ON THE ELEMENTARY PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION

Alexandria, VA: Printed by Cotton & Stewart, for Samuel Bishop, 1803. Two volumes. xviii,[19]-434;vi,[7]-451,[3]pp. 12mo. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt labels. Institutional bookplate on each pastedown obscuring a 19th century inscription; front binder's endsheet excised from volume two, upper joint of volume two cracked (but cords still holding) and with shallow chips at toe of spine and lower edge of upper board, dark, receding discoloration in lower fore quadrant of the two blank endsheets and the first four leaves of letterpress in volume one, usual scattered foxing; July 1803 ownership inscription on each title; still a reasonably agreeable set, seldom seen significantly better. First American edition, "from the Second London Edition." The first and second editions were published in Bath, with subsidiary London imprints. Perhaps the Belfast-born novelist. poet and essayist's most widely read non-literary work, offering "detailed theoretical explorations of how children learn ... [this work owes] at least as much to the philosophical theories of John Locke as it does to the era's standard conduct-book advice on girls' education" - DNB. NCBEL III:729. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 4328. OCLC: 53169618. (Inventory #: WRCLIT66090)