1 vol.
(Declaration of Independence.) The Pennsylvania Magazine: or American Monthly Museum. Philadelphia: R. Aitkens, Jan.-July, 1776. [Vol. 2], 7 nos. 8vo, contemp. blind-paneled calf; scuffed, back endpaper detached. Occasional minor internal dampstaining, a few signatures slightly darkened. With 5 plates, incl. 2 fold. maps; Virginia colony map repaired, lower fore-edge of map gone (incl. much of the cartouche).
Edited by Thomas Paine, publication ceased with the July issue, no title page was issued for vol. 2.
The July issue contains the full text of The Declaration of Independence, and stands as the first magazine publication of The Declaration. The last page of the June issue (evidently held over past its scheduled publication on Wednesday, July 3, 1776) contains the following: "July 2. This day the Hon. Continental Congress declared the United Colonies Free and Independent States." Together with the account in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, this stands as the earliest printed notice of the passage of The Declaration.
The April, 1776 issue includes the complete printing of Phillis Wheatley's poem to General George Washington together with her introductory letter to Washington, "... I have taken the freedom to address your excellency in the enclosed poem,... your being appointed by the Grand Continental Congress to be Generalissimo of the Armies of North America,... excite sensations not easy to suppress." Wheatley was the first African-American author to be published in book form.
Evans 14380; see Sabin 60346