The "Censored" London Edition of Common Sense

Philadelphia, Printed; London, Re-Printed, for J. Almon, 1776. First English edition (conforming with all of Gimbel's first edition points, including the half-title with no edition statement and all hiatuses filled in by a neat, early hand). 8vo. Lacking signature G of Appendix (four total leaves). Later quarter sheep, spine worn; light soiling to half-title; some margins trimmed affecting marginalia or some of the manuscript hiatuses. Adams, American Controversy 76-107c; Church 1135; Gimbel CS-25; Grolier, 100 American 14; Howes P-17; Sabin 58213

To avoid legal responsibility, Almon decided to remove the most provocative phrases and sentences from his edition of Common Sense. They appear instead as simple gaps in the print, or hiatuses. These gaps appear on a dozen different pages in all 1776 editions, with the earliest editions omitting an additional five words.

"Even after Lexington and Bunker Hill, it is probable that a majority of the American people hoped for a reconciliation under which they would have freedom, but as citizens of a British Empire. The radical party had portrayed King George as a benevolent monarch, surrounded by wicked ministers, and few dared even mention independence. Paine's Common Sense, published anonymously in January, 1776, as the first vigorous attack on King George, a 'hardened, sullen-tempered Pharaoh,' Paine called him, and the first public appeal for an American Republic. It is not too much to say that the Declaration of Independence, was due more to Paine's Common Sense than to any other single piece of writing" (Grolier).

This copy is without Chalmers's Plain Truth as often seen, but with the collective half-title listing both titles. Some copies of this edition appear with Chalmers's Plain Truth under a collective half-title, but as Adams states, "The difference in paper used in the two, in at least some copies, suggests that they were printed at different times."