THE SUBJECTION OF WOMEN

Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co, 1869. Very good.. First US edition, with interesting pencil marginalia by an educated 19th-century American reader - including a reference to New Jersey's little-known 18th-century laws granting women voting rights. A major work of political philosophy that argues for more legal and social equality for women, this US edition was published the same year as the UK first. Mill wrote it with significant input from his wife, Harriet Taylor Mill, who published THE ENFRANCHISEMENT OF WOMEN in 1851, from which this book draws clear influence. This copy is distinguished by evidence of frequent reader interaction from an American who writes with a deep knowledge base of the US's record on women's rights: on page 11, they hashtag "there has never been trial made of any other" and note in the bottom margin: "He is mistaken - It was tried in the early history of New Jersey. cf. Nichols 1888" - apparently referring to New Jersey's laws giving voting rights to white women and African Americans in 1776. Many other notes add statements about American similarity to or difference from the context Mill describes in England. A unique copy, revealing an informed contemporary reaction of Mill's political philosophy. 12mo. 7.25'' x 4.75''. Original green pebbled cloth, gilt-lettered spine. 174, [6] pages. Index card-like bookplate with "F.S. Baxter" in manuscript on front pastedown. Penciled notes on pp. 11, 53, 54, 56, 58, 93, 94, and 112, with shorter marks (like underlining) intermittently found throughout, and a few notes in shorthand. Light rubbing to extremities, slight lean.