The History of the Administration of John Adams, Esq; Late President..
A Strident Critique of Adams Suppressed by Burr Wood, John [c.1775-1822]. The History of the Administration of John Adams, Esq. Late President of the United States. New York: [s.n.], 1802. [ii], 506 pp. Octavo (8-1/2" x 5"). Contemporary sheep, gilt fillets and lettering piece to spine. Light rubbing and scuffing to boards, rear board detached along with rear free endpaper, moderate rubbing to extremities, light creasing and some small nicks to spine, light wear to front joint, spine ends, which are chipped, and corners, which are bumped, front hinge cracked, light foxing to endleaves, later ownership signature (of James R. Saltonstall, September 21st, 1850) to front pastedown, illegible ownership signature in pencil to front free endpaper, rear endleaves torn with large portions lacking, small chip to fore-edge of title page without loss to text. Moderate toning and light foxing to interior, light browning in places, a few partial cracks to text block, all leaves secure, light creasing to a few leaves, leaves D1-2 (pp. 25-28) bound after leaves D3-4 (pp. 29-32) due to binder error, brief early annotation describing the error to bottom of p. 24, faint dampstaining to pp. 225-256, clean tear to bottom of Tt2 (pp. 331-332) affecting last 6 lines of text without loss to legibility, last four leaves loosening slightly at head but secure. $950. * First edition, second issue. "The author was a Burr partisan and wrote this diatribe to aide his machinations. Wood did such a thorough job of libel and slander that Burr repudiated the work, and evidently sought to have as many copies destroyed as he could" (Reese). The second issue was released in June 1802. It is identical to the first, but lacks a publisher's imprint (which is often excised from extant copies of the first issue). Wood also published a pamphlet detailing the publication process and the work's suppression by Burr, which kick-started a vicious pamphlet war between Burr's supporters and detractors. Both issues of the first edition are scarce. OCLC locates 7 copies of the second issue in North America. Reese, The Federal Hundred 92 (citing first issue). Howes, USiana W632.
Price: $950.00
Book number 74825