[FEMINIST MANIFESTO - THE FIRST AMERICAN EDITION]. Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Moral and Political Subjects. By Mary Woolstonecraft (sic!) by Wollstonecraft, Mary (1759-1797) - 1792

Philadelphia: William Gibbons, 1792. First American edition. Good. 12mo. xvi, [17], 274 pp. + 1 f. (Table of Contents and advertisement). Collation: [A]6 B-Z6, COMPLETE. Recent 3/4 calf over marbled boards, spine compartments gilt, lettered direct in the second. Title-page frayed along edges, top portion torn away with loss of the letters "V" and "I" along with what was apparently an early signature. In this copy the paper is browned and brittle, and thus priced accordingly. First American edition of Wollstonecraft's famous argument for the equality of education for men and women alike. The American edition was printed in the same year as the London edition. This Philadelphia edition preceeds the Boston edition, and indeed is a much rarer book.

The impact of this work cannot be overstated (see Printing and the Mind of Man 242). Whereas our copy is only in "good" condition, it is complete, and it is distinguished by the fact that one of the earliest owners of it was a man, as we see from the title-page which is boldly inscribed: "James Millers Book."

Rare in commerce -- only 3 copies have been located at auction:

Swann Galleries, 21 October 1982, lot 228.
Christie's New York, 3 December 2007, lot 379
National Book Auctions, 15 September 2013, lot 8091 (ugly).

Evans 25053. ESTC W28531.