French Americana with a Special Section of 18Th-Century French Caribbean Imprints
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
CATALOGUE THREE HUNDRED THIRTY-TWO French Americana with a Special Section of 18th-Century French Caribbean Imprints WILLIAM REESE COMPANY 409 Temple Street New Haven, CT 06511 (203) 789-8081 A Note This catalogue is devoted to the French in the New World. The first part of the catalogue is arranged alphabetically and consists of travel narratives, beginning with Champlain and Sagard in 17th-century Canada; early Caribbean settlement, with Biet and Duterte; the exploration of North America, with Tonti, Hennepin, and Joutel; the founding of Louisiana, with various governmental decrees; and with many important treaties affecting American possessions. It also includes much material on the French in the American Revolution and later travellers from Crevecoeur to Du Pont to Tocqueville. The second part of the catalogue, beginning with item 130 and arranged chrono- logically, contains a remarkable assemblage of 18th-century imprints from the French Caribbean. These begin on Martinique as early as 1764, and include some thirty items from Saint Domingue spanning 1767 to 1793. Available on request or via our website are our recent catalogues: 324 American Military History, 326 Travellers & the American Scene, 327 World Travel & Voyages, 328 Arctic Ex- ploration & the Search for Franklin, 330 Western Americana, 331 Archives & Manuscripts; Bulletins 39 Manuscripts, 40 From Secession to Reconstruction, and 41 Original Works of American Art; e-lists (only available on our website) and many more topical lists. Some of our catalogues, as well as some recent topical lists, are now posted on the internet at www.williamreesecompany.com. A portion of our stock may be viewed at www.williamreesecompany.com. If you would like to receive e-mail notification when catalogues and lists are uploaded, please e-mail us at [email protected] or send us a fax, specifying whether you would like to receive the notifications in lieu of or in addition to paper catalogues. If you would prefer not to receive future catalogues and/or notifica- tions, please let us know. Terms Material herein is offered subject to prior sale. All items are as described and are con- sidered to be on approval. Notice of return must be given within ten days unless specific arrangements are made. Connecticut residents must be billed state sales tax. Postage and insurance charges are billed to all nonprepaid domestic orders. Overseas orders are sent by air unless otherwise requested, with full postage charges billed at our discretion. Payment by check, wire transfer or bank draft is preferred, but may also be made by MasterCard or Visa. William Reese Company Phone: (203) 789-8081 409 Temple Street Fax: (203) 865-7653 New Haven, CT 06511 E-mail: [email protected] www.williamreesecompany.com ON THE COVER: 91. [New York]: Habermann, François Xavier: L’Entre Triumphale de Troupes Royales a Nouvelle Yorck. Augsburg. [1776]. A Fundamental Work of Great Rarity on the American Revolution: The First Continental Printings of COMMON SENSE, the Declaration of Independence, and the Articles of Confederation, Greatly Influenced by Franklin 1. [American Revolution]: [Genêt, Edmé-Jacques, editor]: AFFAIRES DE L’ANGLETERRE ET DE L’AMÉRIQUE. Antwerp [i.e. Paris]. 1776- 1779. Fourteen volumes (of fifteen) in eleven. Complete collation available upon request. Contemporary French half calf and boards, spines gilt, leather labels. Spines professionally restored, some neatly repaired. Light wear to corners and boards. Light scattered foxing to text. In a cloth slipcase. Overall, a very good copy of a rare set. A monumental and fundamentally important set of documents tracing the early course of the American Revolution and events on the North American continent. Affaires de l’Angleterre et de l’Amérique contains among the earliest, and in some cases the first, European printings of many of the most basic documents in American history, including the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, the Articles of Confederation, and several state constitutions. The series was pro- duced by the French government in order to inform the French public of the origins and course of the American Revolution, and to build and justify support among the French aristocracy and bureaucracy for an eventual Franco-American alliance. With the crucial editorial assistance of Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, the Affaires... helped accomplish this goal, as well as providing the French people with their first taste of American democratic philosophy. Affaires de l’Angleterre et de l’Amérique, though bearing an Antwerp imprint, was actually produced by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was available from the French bookseller, Pissot. The false imprint and the anonymity maintained by the editor served to hide the fact that it was issued by the French government and helped maintain a facade of impartiality. The first issue appeared on May 4, 1776, and publication proceeded through October 1779. The series was edited by Edmé- Jacques Genêt, chief interpreter to the French Foreign Minister, Charles Gravier, the Comte de Vergennes. Genêt was the father of Edmund Charles “Citizen” Genêt, who later caused so much discord in French-American relations during his tenure as minister plenipotentiary to the United States in the 1790s. Edmé-Jacques Genêt produced a similar journal during the French and Indian War, using correspondents in Britain, Spain, and the German states to gather news and information on events in the various fields of battle. He called upon some of those same sources, and cultivated American contacts as well, for Affaires de l’Angleterre et de l’Amérique. Chief among Genêt’s American sources was Benjamin Franklin, who arrived in Paris on Dec. 21, 1776, as one of the American representatives seeking an alliance with France. Among the first documents Franklin provided to Genêt was a copy of John Dickinson’s draft of the Articles of Confederation. In the United States these were still secret documents which had only circulated in committee in the Continental Congress. The Articles were translated in full and appear in the Dec. 27, 1776 edition of the Affaires..., constituting “the first unrestricted publication in any language of the Articles of Confederation” (Echeverria). Franklin also provided Genêt with American newspapers, copies of his own correspondence, and old es- says, all documenting the development of the rift between Great Britain and her American colonies in a light very favorable to the colonists. Franklin also contrib- uted an original essay, Comparison of Great Britain and America as to Credit, in 1777, to Genêt’s journal (printed in the Oct. 18, 1777 “Banker’s Letter”). John Adams arrived in Paris in the spring of 1778, and was also very active in supplying Genêt with newspapers, copies of his own letters, and rebuttals to British propaganda. Laura Anne Bédard, a recent student of Affaires de l’Angleterre et de l’Amérique, notes that the journal took a markedly pro-American tinge once Franklin began his contributions. This emphasis carried through the negotiation of the Franco- American Treaty of Amity and Commerce, all the way to the end of the journal’s publication in October 1779. With such well placed American contacts, it is not surprising that Affaires de l’Angleterre et de l’Amérique contains some of the earliest appearances of many of the basic works of the Revolutionary era. The number of important publications contained in the journal is nevertheless remarkable. The publication of John Dick- inson’s draft of the Articles of Confederation has already been mentioned. The Declaration of Independence appears in the Aug. 16, 1776 issue of the Affaires... (in the “Banker’s Letter”) and is the first European printing of that landmark document, preceding other French and British printings by one to two weeks. Durand Echeverria mistakenly identifies a printing of the Declaration in the Aug. 30, 1776 edition of the Gazette de Leyde as the first French translation, missing its appearance a full two weeks earlier in the Affaires.... Thomas Paine’s incredibly influential and wildly popular Common Sense was the first purely political essay published in the Affaires..., appearing in the issue of June 15, 1776. It does not appear in a word-for-word translation, but Genêt reprinted the majority of Paine’s text, summarizing the sections he excluded. Gimbel notes only one other French language printing of Common Sense in 1776, bearing a Rotterdam imprint. This is almost certainly its first continental appearance. Genêt also printed several state constitutions as soon as they became available, usually supplied by Franklin and translated by the Duc de la Rochefoucauld d’Enville. The Affaires... includes the first European printings of the constitutions of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Virginia. Echeverria notes that the two earliest separate French publications printing American constitutions, ap- pearing in 1778, were word-for-word copies, including footnotes, from Affaires de l’Angleterre et de l’Amérique. In the Oct. 2, 1778 issue Genêt reproduced the full text of the Franco-American Treaty of Amity and Commerce, concluded the previ- ous February and not yet ratified. Echeverria accurately calls the Affaires... one of the two “most important publications of American political documents in France during the American war.” Along with these vital documents, Affaires de l’Angleterre et de l’Amérique is filled with thousands of pages of fascinating documents tracing the development of the conflict between Great Britain and her American colonies, and following the actual course of the war. Most issues contain two sections, a “Journal” devoted to the latest news from abroad, and a section of commentary in the form of a “Letter From a London Banker,” actually written by Genêt himself. The Journal sections contain excerpts from newspapers, periodicals, and other reports on military campaigns (including letters from British, German, and American soldiers), debates in the British parliament, and accounts of British finances.