Morton, Nathaniel:

$15,000 · Offered by William Reese Company

NEW-ENGLAND'S MEMORIAL: OR, A BRIEF RELATION OF THE MOST MEMORABLE AND REMARKABLE PASSAGES OF THE PROVINCE.... The Brinley copy of the second edition of one of the most important New England books, possibly rarer than the first of 1669. First issued in a very rare 1669 Boston edition, this second American edition includes a supplement by Josiah Cotton concerning events in New England between 1669 and 1691. Morton (1616–85) was the nephew of William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth Colony, and much of this book, valuable for its history of the colony, was drawn from Bradford's papers which had passed into his possession. Generally considered one of the foundation works of New England history, and the first secular book published in New England, it is probably also the first secular book to be reprinted, a tribute to its enduring interest. There are two issues of this edition, revealing of Boston book trade practice of the time, since one bills the bookseller Daniel Henchman as publisher, the other his less successful competitor, Nicholas Boone, as in the present copy. The 1669 first edition of Morton has become virtually unobtainable, and even the Siebert collection lacked a copy. This edition is in many ways equally important. A very good copy, from the library of a pioneer in Americana collecting.

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