![[West Virginia]. Mathers, William. The Rise, Progress and Downfall of Aristocracy... Wheeling, VA](https://gcp-la8-storage-cdn.lot-art.com/public/upl/81/West-Virginia-Mathers-William-The-Rise-Progress-and-Downfall-of-Aristocracy-Wheeling-VA_6ad247c7c5197-full-18932900_1792165838-6ad247ce2e3a8.jpg "[West Virginia]. Mathers, William. The Rise, Progress and Downfall of Aristocracy... Wheeling, VA")
[West Virginia]. Mathers, William. The Rise, Progress and Downfall of Aristocracy... Wheeling, VA
[West Virginia]. Mathers, William. The Rise, Progress and Downfall of Aristocracy... Wheeling, VA [West Virginia:] W. Cooper Howells for the author, 1831.
8vo (197 x 121 mm). (Free endpapers and blanks torn away, dampstaining in fore-edge of leaves at front and rear; spotting and soiling to text.) Original quarter cloth, drab paper boards (soiled and worn).
FIRST EDITION of this curious attack on aristocracy and slavery by the Presbyterian radical William Mathers, printed by William Cooper Howells, father of novelist William Dean Howells. Mathers, an Irish-born Ohio settler who had traveled extensively through the Louisiana and Illinois territories, developed an idiosyncratic political theology that identified aristocracy as the source of social disorder and attacked corporations, banks, slavery, and entrenched privilege.
Howells later recalled Mathers and the disastrous publication of his book in Recollections of Life in Ohio, 1813 to 1840. He described him as "ultra democratic in his views," regarding aristocracy as "the antichrist," and his book as "a queer compound of politics and theology in which things were mixed up in a most Quixotic manner." Mathers was convinced that the work would make his fortune, but proved unable to pay for its printing. "With his book," Howells recalled, "closed my printing business in Wheeling." (pp.170-171).
VERY RARE: According to online records, the present copy is the first to appear at auction since 1924. Norona 518; Sabin 46818; Swem & Hall, Bibliography of Virginia 3545.
Property from Bethany College
This lot is located in Chicago.
[West Virginia]. Mathers, William. The Rise, Progress and Downfall of Aristocracy... Wheeling, VA [West Virginia:] W. Cooper Howells for the author, 1831.
8vo (197 x 121 mm). (Free endpapers and blanks torn away, dampstaining in fore-edge of leaves at front and rear; spotting and soiling to text.) Original quarter cloth, drab paper boards (soiled and worn).
FIRST EDITION of this curious attack on aristocracy and slavery by the Presbyterian radical William Mathers, printed by William Cooper Howells, father of novelist William Dean Howells. Mathers, an Irish-born Ohio settler who had traveled extensively through the Louisiana and Illinois territories, developed an idiosyncratic political theology that identified aristocracy as the source of social disorder and attacked corporations, banks, slavery, and entrenched privilege.
Howells later recalled Mathers and the disastrous publication of his book in Recollections of Life in Ohio, 1813 to 1840. He described him as "ultra democratic in his views," regarding aristocracy as "the antichrist," and his book as "a queer compound of politics and theology in which things were mixed up in a most Quixotic manner." Mathers was convinced that the work would make his fortune, but proved unable to pay for its printing. "With his book," Howells recalled, "closed my printing business in Wheeling." (pp.170-171).
VERY RARE: According to online records, the present copy is the first to appear at auction since 1924. Norona 518; Sabin 46818; Swem & Hall, Bibliography of Virginia 3545.
Property from Bethany College
This lot is located in Chicago.
