[Run of Eight Bound Volumes of the Gentleman's Magazine

(AMERICAN REVOLUTION). URBAN, Sylvanus. [Run of Eight Bound Volumes of the Gentleman's Magazine Covering Nearly the Entire Period of the Revolutionary War, 1775-1782]. London: [Various printers by volume], 1775-1782. Eight volumes. iv,639,[13]; [4],608,[16]; [4],642,[14]; [4],645,[15]; [4],649,[15]; iv,628,[16]; iv,[2],633,[15]; iv,iv,631,[17]pp., plus thirty-six maps and eighty engraved plates, many folding. Uniform 20th-century dark green cloth, gilt labels. Light shelf wear, one volume with a small hole in the spine cloth. Minor foxing and tanning or scattered stains, variously by issue. Occasional marginal flaws or small tears, sometimes grazing a letter or two without loss. 1777 and 1779 volumes slightly more worn, but all issues at least very good. Untrimmed and partially unopened. SABIN 26954. JOLLY, MAPS IN BRITISH PERIODICALS I, pp.78-83. MATYAS, DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 76-5. A highly-important run of this notable British periodical, each volume brimming with Revolutionary content. The pages of the Gentleman's Magazine for the years 1775 to 1782 comprise an important record of the American Revolution, recording the proceedings of Parliament, major engagements in America, and detailing the political situation in both America and in Great Britain. Nearly every issue in this run dedicates several pages to an "Account of the Proceedings of the American Colonists," in addition to longer articles reprinting noteworthy documents or discussing events of particular import. The first issue of this run, for example, prints in full the First Continental Congress's Letter to the Inhabitants of the Province of Quebec. In May of 1776 they print the resolutions of the Virginia Convention, and the August, 1776 issue prints the text of the Declaration of Independence, which Matyas lists as one of the earliest printings of the document not as a broadside. The same issue's "Account." section opens by referring the reader to that all-important document, positing that "Whether those grievances were real or imaginary, or whether they did or did not deserve a parliamentary enquiry, we will not presume to decide. The ball is now struck, and time only can shew where it will rest." The entire course of the war is reported month by month from the British perspective, alth.…