[ECONOMIC REFORM] [WADE, John]

The Black Book; or, Corruption Unmasked!

London: John Fairburn, 1820. First Edition. First printing. Octavo in fours (22cm). In nineteenth-century half brown calf with marbled paper over boards, seven double gilt rules to spine, with blind ornament in compartments, titled in gilt on brown leather spine label, all edges sprinkled brown; plain endpapers; [iv], 480pp. 1944 pencil ownership inscription to rear endpaper. A straight, sound copy with minor general wear to boards, paper lightly scuffed, edges rubbed, internally largely clean with one or two pencil marks and small spots of foxing: Very Good.

A key text of early nineteenth-century English parliamentary reformers: "a massive compendium of all the abuses, electoral, ecclesiastical, legal," that they "sought to abolish." The book "passed through edition after edition, continually augmented with new arguments, new reports of abuses and new statistics. . . its emphasis on the need to have practical as well as equitable representation lies at the root of parliamentary democracy" (Printing and the Mind of Man, p.180). Previously published in installments in 1819; this is the first book edition. PMM296. GOLDSMITHS 23071. KRESS C.638.

Price: $400.00

Go Back