![[WARD, Nathaniel (1578?-1652)]. The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. Willing to help 'mend his Native Country, lamentably tattered, both in the upper-Leather and sole, with all the honest stitches he can take. London: John Dever and Robert Ibbitson for Stephen Bowtell, 1647.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2012/NYR/2012_NYR_02622_0152_000(ward_nathaniel_the_simple_cobler_of_aggawam_in_america_willing_to_help074708).jpg?w=1)
Details
[WARD, Nathaniel (1578?-1652)]. The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. Willing to help 'mend his Native Country, lamentably tattered, both in the upper-Leather and sole, with all the honest stitches he can take. London: John Dever and Robert Ibbitson for Stephen Bowtell, 1647.
4o (179 x 135 mm). 19th-century calf (rebacked preserving original spine). Provenance: Samuel Latham Mitchill Barlow (1826-1889), lawyer and book collector, his library was housed at his estate Elsinore in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York (bookplate).
ONE OF THE FIRST CLASSICS OF 17TH-CENTURY AMERICAN PROSE
FIRST EDITION of five issued the same year. "The Rev. Nathaniel Ward, on coming to this country, went to Agawam, now Ipswich, Mass., where he was for two years the colleague of the Rev. Thomas Parker. Owing to ill health, he held this position for only two or three years. He continued to reside at Agawam for a time during which he compiled the first code of laws established in New England, the 'Body of Liberties' for Massachusetts colony. This, after revision was adopted by the General Court in 1641, for a period of three years. Early in 1645 Ward began writing The Simple Cobler of Aggawam, a prose satire of the times, which instantly became popular and will always associate his name with early American literature" (Church). "One would have to search long among the rubbish of books thrown forth to the public during those hot and teeming days, to find one more authentically representing the stir, the earnestness, the intolerance, the hope, and the wrath of the times than this" (Tyler, American Literature, I:229). All of the 1647 editions are RARE: according to American Book Prices Current, only four have sold in at least thirty years (one first edition, three third editions). Aldin & Landis 647/200; Church 484; JCB (3) II:360; Sabin 101323; Wing W-786.
4o (179 x 135 mm). 19th-century calf (rebacked preserving original spine). Provenance: Samuel Latham Mitchill Barlow (1826-1889), lawyer and book collector, his library was housed at his estate Elsinore in Glen Cove, Long Island, New York (bookplate).
ONE OF THE FIRST CLASSICS OF 17TH-CENTURY AMERICAN PROSE
FIRST EDITION of five issued the same year. "The Rev. Nathaniel Ward, on coming to this country, went to Agawam, now Ipswich, Mass., where he was for two years the colleague of the Rev. Thomas Parker. Owing to ill health, he held this position for only two or three years. He continued to reside at Agawam for a time during which he compiled the first code of laws established in New England, the 'Body of Liberties' for Massachusetts colony. This, after revision was adopted by the General Court in 1641, for a period of three years. Early in 1645 Ward began writing The Simple Cobler of Aggawam, a prose satire of the times, which instantly became popular and will always associate his name with early American literature" (Church). "One would have to search long among the rubbish of books thrown forth to the public during those hot and teeming days, to find one more authentically representing the stir, the earnestness, the intolerance, the hope, and the wrath of the times than this" (Tyler, American Literature, I:229). All of the 1647 editions are RARE: according to American Book Prices Current, only four have sold in at least thirty years (one first edition, three third editions). Aldin & Landis 647/200; Church 484; JCB (3) II:360; Sabin 101323; Wing W-786.