8vo (209 x 133 mm). (Very light spotting throughout.) Contemporary half calf (front board detached, rubbing to boards). Provenance: Thomas Charles Smith (ownership bookplate).

PHILLIS WHEATLEY'S FOURTH PUBLISHED POEM AND HER FIRST IN A MAGAZINE.

Phillis Wheatley is believed to have been born in West Africa in 1753, likely in modern-day Senegal. At eight years old, she was sold by a chief to a visiting trader and transported to Boston aboard the slave ship Phillis, where she was then sold to wealthy merchant John Wheatley. Despite her enslaved status, the Wheatley family dedicated themselves to her education, and Phillis was able to read Greek and Latin classics in their original languages by the time she was twelve. Influenced by these works, Phillis began to write her own poetry, an endeavor supported by the Wheatley family, who steadily removed her from all domestic chores so she could focus on her writing.

By 1773, she had published four poems in various periodicals, primarily in England. That year, at Susanna Wheatley's request, she accompanied John Wheatley to London in the hopes that she might have better luck finding a publisher for her book of poems there than she would in the colonies. With the publication of Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral in September 1773, she became the first published African-American author.