Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry
Philadelphia: James Webster, 1818. Second Edition, Corrected by the Author. Octavo, xv, 427, xii pages, bound in period full leather. William Wirt’s Sketches of the Life and Character of Patrick Henry is one of the foundational early biographies of the great Virginia orator and Revolutionary patriot, preserving Henry’s reputation as a fiery advocate of American independence and republican liberty. First published in 1817, the work helped shape the nineteenth-century image of Patrick Henry as the voice of Revolutionary resistance, famous for his eloquence, legal brilliance, and political leadership in colonial and early national Virginia. This 1818 Second Edition, Corrected by the Author, published in Philadelphia by James Webster, is an early corrected edition of Wirt’s influential biography, notable both as an important piece of early American historical writing and as a collectible account of one of the Revolution’s most celebrated figures.
With early Delaware family provenance, bearing the ownership inscription of Eliza T. Sipple — later Eliza Tatnall Sipple Canby — and a subsequent inscription reading “For Anna T. Canby,” likely her daughter Anna Tatnall Canby of Wilmington, Delaware. The volume thus appears to have descended within the prominent Wilmington Canby family, a Quaker family with deep Delaware and Philadelphia-area connections. Further strengthening the local provenance, the inside front board retains the printed label of James Wilson, Bookseller & Stationer, Wilmington, Delaware, placing the book within the early nineteenth-century Wilmington book trade. Some rubbing and wear, scuffs, hinges cracked, leather deteriorating, some occasional scattered foxing, else in good condition. Item #321
Price: $250.00