1830 · New York
by Kent, James
New York: Published by O. Halsted, 1830. [2], vi, [2], 508; viii, 528; viii, 413; viii, 550 pp. Title leaf of each volume with an old rubberstamp. Otherwise, light foxing and a Very Good text. Bound in matching modern, bright cloth, with gilt-lettered morocco spine labels.
The first edition of a classic American legal work. "England has only furnished one Blackstone, and the American rival equals him in classic purity and elegance of style, and surpasses him in extent and copiousness of learning. What do Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries contain... which are discussed with such richness and accuracy by Chancellor Kent? Scarcely nothing, and a comparison... shows the American author to have surpassed his rival in comprehensiveness of research, and fulness of illustration, and to have equalled him in clearness and cogency of reasoning" [Marvin].
Larned calls it a "great work... marked by a firm grasp of essentials, by explicit statement of fundamental principles, and by a clear, unaffected, straightforward style, which avoids any pedantic exhibition of learning."
FIRST EDITIONS. Cohen 5398. Larned 2761. Marvin 437-438 [recording the 5th edition]. (Inventory #: 32593)
The first edition of a classic American legal work. "England has only furnished one Blackstone, and the American rival equals him in classic purity and elegance of style, and surpasses him in extent and copiousness of learning. What do Sir William Blackstone's Commentaries contain... which are discussed with such richness and accuracy by Chancellor Kent? Scarcely nothing, and a comparison... shows the American author to have surpassed his rival in comprehensiveness of research, and fulness of illustration, and to have equalled him in clearness and cogency of reasoning" [Marvin].
Larned calls it a "great work... marked by a firm grasp of essentials, by explicit statement of fundamental principles, and by a clear, unaffected, straightforward style, which avoids any pedantic exhibition of learning."
FIRST EDITIONS. Cohen 5398. Larned 2761. Marvin 437-438 [recording the 5th edition]. (Inventory #: 32593)