ESSAYS OF MICHAEL SEIGNEUR DE MONTAIGNE

1759. MONTAIGNE, [Michel] de. THE ESSAYS OF MICHAEL SEIGNEUR DE MONTAIGNE, translated into English. In three volumes. London: Printed for S. and E. Ballard, J. Clarke, D. Browne, et al., 1759. The seventh edition, "with very considerable amendments and improvements, from the most elegant and accurate French edition of Peter Coste;" it is a revised version of Charles Cotton's translation. Three octavo volumes: [28],414,[26]; [4],608,[36]; [4],468,[27] pp. In contemporary leather bindings with gilt stamped double-rule frames on sides, the bindings lack spine labels and show moderate wear, particularly at heels and crowns, with some soiling/staining. The joints of volume one have hairline cracks. Text leaves are clean. However, one leaf in volume one (pp. 265-6) has along closed tear, but without any loss of text. Each volume has the ownership signature of Parker Pillsbury, as well as some occasional pencil notes or markings in the margins in volumes two and three. Parker Pillsbury (1809-1898), worked ceaselessly for human betterment over the course of his long life, primarily as an abolitionist and women's rights activist. He edited The Herald of Freedom (Concord, New Hampshire) in the 1840s and The National Anti-Slavery Standard (New York, NY) in 1866, all while working as an abolitionist lecture agent for the New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and American anti-slavery societies. After the Civil War, Pillsbury labored for Negro suffrage and was interested in temperance, political reform, international peace, and women's rights. He served as vice-president of the New Hampshire Woman Suffrage Association and, in 1865, helped draft the constitution of the American Equal Rights Association. For a year and a half (1868-69) he was co-editor with Elizabeth Cady Stanton of The Revolution, a radical weekly created by Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. (D.A.B. VII, pp.608-9).