Aquatint Copperplate process by which the plate is “bitten” by exposure to acid.A highly desirable near-fine copy, handsomely housed in a custom clamshell box. Text fresh with lightest scattered foxing, minor cosmetic repair to paper clip staining on upper margins of several leaves, not affecting text. “Mixed copies are known, made up of signatures from different editions” (Gimbel, 86).

It has the hiatuses in lines 15 and 17 of the Introduction printed in, and the correct pagination of page 23. This copy of Common Sense is in the format without Plain Truth, without the half title, and is an intermediate state between the second and fourth edition. There were four London editions of Common Sense printed by John Almon in 1776: issued in two forms-with James Chalmer’s Plain Truth, both with and without a half title. It worked nothing short of miracles and turned Tories into Whigs” (Trevelyan, History). “It would be difficult to name any human composition which has had an effect at once so instant, so extended and so lasting… Common Sense turned thousands to independence who before could not endure the thought.

Common Sense made history as “the most discussed and most widely circulated pamphlet in America” (Gimbel, 49). The 1776 American editions of Common Sense ignited the drive for independence and led directly to the ratification of the Declaration of Independence the British editions greatly affected public opinion in England, drawing many to support the American cause. This is an early mixed copy with most points agreeing with the third English edition (issued the same year as the first) and, like most English editions, with hiatuses deleting material critical of the English crown and government to avoid prosecution. This expanded edition contains Paine’s additions, increasing the work by one-third. it remains one of the most brilliant pamphlets ever written in the English language ( Covenanted People 27). “By far the most influential tract of the American Revolution…. An exceptional copy with most points of the third London edition.Īll 1776 editions of Common Sense are rare and desirable and are increasingly difficult to obtain. Rare early 1776 London edition of Paine’s Common Sense, printed within months of the first American edition. Slim octavo, period-style stiff marbled wrappers pp. Philadelphia, Printed London, Re-Printed, for J. To which is added an Appendix together with an Address to the People called Quakers. Common Sense Addressed to the Inhabitants of America… A New Edition, with several Additions in the Body of the Work. “THE CAUSE OF AMERICA IS… THE CAUSE OF ALL MANKIND”: SCARCE 1776 FIRST LONDON EDITION OF COMMON SENSE, “THE MOST INFLUENTIAL TRACT OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION”

Thomas paine and common sense