A Fine Collection of American Literature and History

Rare American 1776 Edition of Thomas Paine's Common Sense

Philadelphia Printed: Newbury-Port (Massachusetts), Reprinted, (likely by John Mycall) for Samuel Phillips, jun. of Andover, (1776). First Newburyport edition. 8vo. 61, (1) pp.; with half-title and original blank at rear. Three-quarter crimson morocco over red cloth-covered boards, stamped in blind and in gilt; all edges trimmed; marbled endpapers; contemporary ownership signature at top of half-title ("Wm Bartlet 2/6"), other partial contemporary ink signature in another hand--likely by a child--to same and on verso of rear blank; scattered foxing to text; stain in upper fore-edge of p. (7). Gimbel CS-17; Adams 222h (The American Controversy and American Independence); ESTC W32280; Not in Sabin or Evans

An exceedingly rare 1776 American edition of Thomas Paine's iconic revolutionary pamphlet, "one of the few indisputably most influential American books," for which, "Paine succeeded in providing the popular political reasoning and philosophy for the American Revolution." (Streeter II:782).

Paine first arrived in America from England on November 30, 1774, and became an editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine, where he became increasingly interested in the revolutionary fervor then reaching a crescendo across Britain's 13 North American colonies. In 1775, at the suggestion of Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush, Paine began writing an essay in support of American independence. He originally conceived his essay as a series of letters in newspapers, but when he finished the manuscript he understood that his fiery anti-monarchical message that called for immediate independence needed to be printed as a single tract to retain its desired effect. The first edition was printed by Robert Bell in Philadelphia in January, 1776, in an edition of 1,000 copies. It quickly sold out. Due to a falling out between Bell and Paine over profits, William and Thomas Bradford, also of Philadelphia, then printed an enlarged edition in February, 1776, on which the text of this Newburyport edition is based. The final page of this Newburyport edition features a printing of "The American Patriot's Prayer", a short anonymous poem first published in the Pennsylvania Ledger on December 23, 1775. From those Philadelphia printings, "Common Sense swept the country like a prairie fire, and Paine poured more fuel on the flame by giving authority to other printers to publish it..." (Gimbel, p. 57).

This is one of two versions printed in Newburyport in 1776. The other was printed by John Mycall and, according to Thomas R. Adams in American Independence, our Phillips version was likely the first to appear. ESTC lists Mycall as the presumed publisher/printer of our version and, according to Adams, Mycall used "substantially the same setting of type" from our version when making his (American Independence, p. 167). Gimbel further states that this Phillips version, "except for the imprint, (is the) same as Newburyport edition printed by Mycall." (Thomas Paine: A Bibliographical Check List of Common Sense..., p. 78). Scholar Trish Loughran has suggested that these two versions are “a joint venture from the same typeset.” (The Republic in Print: Print Culture in the Age of U.S. Nation Building, 1770-1879, p. 457, n45). The Phillips version has previously been described as a variant of the Mycall version, that was privately printed for Newburyport merchant Samuel Phillips, Jr., likely in a small number for his personal use. Priority between these two versions has not been clearly established, although Adams's language indicates that the Phillips version appeared first, and it is possible they appeared at the same time. Advertisements for this Phillips edition appeared in Newburyport’s Essex Journal (published by Mycall), on April 19 and 26, 1776, stating that it is “Now in the press and will be published in about a fortnight, and sold by Samuel Phillips, Jr., of Andover, and by the Printer hereof, by the hundred, dozen, or single…”, and on May 19, as “Just Published.” This is the first copy of the Phillips version to be sold at auction since 1970, and one of only of a handful that have seemingly ever come to auction. ESTC locates only 14 institutions worldwide with copies. Very rare.

The signatory of this volume is possibly William Bartlet (1748-1841), a Newburyport merchant and philanthropist. Apprenticed under his father as a shoemaker, Bartlet went on to become the most successful merchant in Newburyport during his lifetime, amassing a fortune building merchant vessels and manufacturing textiles. During the Revolutionary era he and his brother-in-law William Coombs helped finance several U.S. Naval vessels, including the sloop Merrimack--the first subscription vessel of the Navy. At the close of the Revolution he became the owner of a large fleet of merchant vessels and numerous wharves and warehouses, and was one of the first in New England to undertake textile manufacturing. In 1785 he and Coombs were elected as Selectmen in Newburyport, and Bartlet later served three terms as a representative in the Massachusetts General Court, from 1800 to 1802. In 1808 he helped found the Andover Theological Seminary, and financed the construction of several buildings on its campus (now the residence of the Phillips Academy, founded by Samuel Phillips, Jr., for whom this book was printed, in 1778).