Philadelphia: Printed for Mathew Carey, 1794. Three volumes in one. Second American Edition. 12mo. 246 pp.; with three title-pages; half-title bound before B1. Contemporary brown sheep, red morocco spine label, stamped in gilt, boards scuffed and rubbed, extremities rubbed and worn, small loss at head of spine and upper front board; all edges trimmed; old partially removed small label on front paste-down; front and rear free endpapers perished; top edge of first title-page and dedication leaf excised; horizontal tear traversing entire center of pp. (vii)-x; tears and creasing in lower gutter of most leaves; intermittent closed tears along fore-edge throughout; large vertical closed tear traversing half of P1; horizontal tear traversing entire center of final text leaf; foxing and soiling throughout. Evans 27653; Wright 2252

Rare second American edition of Susanna Haswell Rowson's second novel. Best known for her fourth novel, Charlotte (1791), considered America's first best-selling novel, The Inquisitor was first published in London in 1788 and then in America in 1791. No copies of the first edition are recorded in the available auctions records, while only one copy of the first American edition is recorded, at Henkels, in 1932. This is only the second copy of the second American edition found at auction since 1945. As her first novel, Victoria, as well as the earlier editions of this work are practically unobtainable, this is likely the only accessible edition of any of Rowson's early works.