TRIP TO PARIS IN JULY & AUGUST 1792.|A

Newtown, PA: Bird & Bull Press, 2012. quarter morocco, blue cloth covered boards, gilt lettering on spine. Bird & Bull Press. 8vo. quarter morocco, blue cloth covered boards, gilt lettering on spine. (4), 82 pages. One of 120 copies. Richard Twiss (1747-1821) was an 18th century travel writer of some renown. He went out of his way to stir up controversy as the resulting publicity increased the sale of his books. His second book, A Tour of Ireland in 1775, full of disparaging remarks, sneers and ridicule, earned him universal dislike in the country, but made the book a best-seller. Irish anger was visibly expressed by the production and sale of thousands of chamberpots ("Twiss-pots") with a picture of Twiss printed on the bottom.



In 1793, he published A Trip to Paris in July and August, 1792, which is the basis for the present book. Twiss' tendency to be overly-critical appears here and there in the Paris book, but alongside the mundane details of transport, sight-seeing, food and lodging and currency exchange, which all travelers want to know, he is on the ground reporting the bloody events of a violent revolution in progress.



A Trip to Paris is printed on Arches laid paper and quarterbound in morocco with Japanese cloth sides. Four wood engravings by Wesley Bates illustrate the text. Two tipped in specimens and prospectus are also included. (Inventory #: 109163)