John Dunton’s Letters From New-England.

DUNTON, John.

$750.00

Item Number: 135164

Boston: Printed For the Society, 1867.

The Prince Society edition of Dunton’s letters from New England. Octavo, bound in three quarters morocco, gilt titles and tooling to the spine in six compartments within raised gilt bands, top edge gilt. One of twenty numbered copies printed on large paper, this is number 5. In very good condition.

John Dunton was a famed traveler and author of the mid 17th century who founded the first major popular periodical and first miscellaneous periodical in England. In 1686, probably because he was concerned in the Monmouth Rebellion, Dunton visited New England, where he stayed eight months selling books and observing with interest the new country and its inhabitants. He sailed from Gravesend in October 1685, and reached Boston after a four months' voyage. He sold his books, and visited Cambridge. In Roxbury he saw the missionary John Eliot and learned something of Native American customs. He stayed for a time at Salem and Wenham, and returned to England in the autumn of 1686.