Rights of Man: Part the First Being An Answer to Mr. Burke’s Attack on the French Revolution [and] Rights of Man: Part the Second. Combining Principle and Practice.

PAINE, Thomas.

$2,500.00

Item Number: 121460

London, Printed: New York: Reprinted For Berry, Rogers, and Berry, No. 35, Hanover Square, 1792-1793.

Early printing of Paine’s Rights of Man Part the First and Part the Second. Octavo, disbound. With the textual error to the date of publication to Part the First reading 1742. The first part of Rights of Man was published in February 1791 by London publisher Johnson, but was immediately suppressed. With difficulty Paine was able to secure another publisher in London, J.S. Jordan. The second part was first published in London by Jordan on February 1792. In near fine condition.

Envisioning that Rights of Man "would do for England what his Common Sense had done for America," Paine answered Burke's attack on the French Revolution with his "celebrated answer, The Rights of Man" (Gimbel-Yale 59). Written "with a force and clarity unequalled even by Burke, Paine laid down those principles of fundamental human rights which must stand, no matter what excesses are committed to obtain them… The government tried to suppress it, but it circulated the more briskly… [Rights of Man is] the textbook of radical thought and the clearest of all expositions of the basic principles of democracy" (PMM 241). Rights of Man, Part I, was dedicated to Washington and first published on his February 22, 1791 birthday by London publisher J. Johnson, but was immediately suppressed. With difficulty Paine was able to secure the services of London publisher J.S. Jordan. "The book was a sensation" (Gimbel-Yale 60).