Publisher: Paris: Chez Cuchet, Libraire, Rue et Hôtel Serpente. 1787.

Illustration: Engraved allegorical frontispieces and fold-out maps of the United States and regions of North America.

Edition: French edition, first Paris printing, translated from the English original (1782).

Binding: Three volumes in handsome contemporary mottled calf, gilt spines richly decorated with floral motifs and red morocco labels, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Some rubbing and chipping to spine ends, corners lightly worn, but bindings remain attractive, uniform, and strong on the shelf.

Description: A remarkable French edition of Crèvecœur’s Letters from an American Farmer, first published in London in 1782 and here issued in Paris in 1787, the very year of the U.S. Constitutional Convention. Crèvecœur, a French émigré who settled in New York, composed these letters as both memoir and social commentary, vividly describing the American colonies, frontier life, agriculture, slavery, and the emerging identity of a new nation.

Condition: Very good overall. Some rubbing to bindings and minor wear to spines; maps with expected folds but intact; interiors generally clean with only light foxing.

Annotation: Includes folding maps of the United States; allegorical engraved frontispieces; handsome contemporary gilt calf bindings.

Item #131

Price: $4,500.00