[Item #55640] Letters from Van Dieman's Land, Written During Four Years Imprisonment for Political Offences Committed in Upper Canada. Embodying, Also, Letters Descriptive of Personal Appeals in Behalf of Her Husband and His Fellow Prisoners, to the Earl of Durham, Her Majesty, and the United Legislature of the Canadas. Benjamin WAIT, Wait, Maria.

Letters from Van Dieman's Land, Written During Four Years Imprisonment for Political Offences Committed in Upper Canada. Embodying, Also, Letters Descriptive of Personal Appeals in Behalf of Her Husband and His Fellow Prisoners, to the Earl of Durham, Her Majesty, and the United Legislature of the Canadas

Buffalo: A. W. Wilgus, 1843. First Edition. First printing. Octavo (17cm). In contemporary tan sheep, with remnants of black leather spine label; plain endpapers; [i]-vi [7]-356pp; frontispiece portrait and folding map of Van Dieman's Land p.353. Pencil ownership signature of A. G. Champlin. A straight copy, leather rubbed and peeling, most of spine label lacking, small loss at head of spine, front pastedown damaged where a bookplate has been removed, joints worn, foxed throughout: Good.

Benjamin Wait was exiled to Van Dieman's Land (i.e., Tasmania) for his participation in the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837-1838. His wife Maria expended great efforts to free him, getting his original death sentence commuted to transportation and struggling to obtain a pardon for him, but she died shortly after his return to America. This volumes combines his narrative of his experience, taken from letters written to a friend, and an account of Maria's work on his behalf. FERGUSON 3762. HOWES W16. SABIN 100969. AMERICAN IMPRINTS 43-5096.

Price: $350.00

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