Pleasing Instructor, First Edition (5 results)

First edition, first printing. Near fine small format paperback with a small sticker scar to the rear panel. Number 95 from a series of pocket books, many featuring wood engravers, published by J.L. Carr who was also a novelist and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize with "A Month in the Country" in 1980.

Leather. Condition: Good. First American Edition. 12mo 7" - 7½" tall; 312 pages; "New Edition" on the title page; believed the 1st American edition of this pedagogical anthology which went through several editions in England. "Thoughts on education, by way of introduction." at front signed A. Fisher (Ann Fisher Slack). Period calf with partial leather title lable to spine. Front flyleaf has the top 1/3 clipped away presumably to remove ownership; a chip and closed tear to the bottom edge of the same leaf. Contents complete and decent with usual and expected general toning and occasional spotting. Leather crazed somewhat over the spine; some shallow gnawing to the front edge of the lower board. [Evans 29518; Sabin 63412] Uncommon early American imprint of this British pedagogical collection. Good thus.

New edition. [2], xi, [1], 348pp. With three engraved plates. Contemporary gilt-ruled sheep. Rubbed and marked, corners bumped. Early inked ownership inscription to FEP, without free-endpapers, title page browned. An enlarged edition of a popular compilation of essays intended to assist the moral and spiritual education of young students of both sexes. Arranged by grammarian Anne Fisher (1719-1798), the wife of publisher Thomas Slack, the work proved immensely popular - and as a result was often pirated (including the forgery of Fisher's signature of authentication). The first London edition appeared in 1757. Slack continued to issue editions into the 1790s. Size: 12mo.

First edition. A small children's black and white chap book. Printed by Knight and Bagster, 14 Bartholomew Close : For J. Davis, no. 56, Paternoster-Row, A small illustrated work. 16 pages. Illustrated cover, 15 pages which have, to the lower half, poetry, and to the top half, a wood engraving. Finally a full page engraving to the rear cover. Very clean and bright. Sewn binding. It looks as it the cotton binding has been replaced fairly recently. 9cm x 6cm. Date suggested by other publications in the series. We can find no separate Worldcat listing for this work, although it did appear in a collection by Opie later. .

In the preface to the present work, the anonymous author writes, ÒThis little bookÉit is hoped will be found, on perusal, in some measure to answer its title, as the religious, moral and divine maxims therein contained, are selected from a great number of authors, both ancient and modern, who are famed, in different ages of the world, for their wisdom and prudenceÓ (p. iii). Notable persons referenced in the text include Pericles (495-429 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC) with a section containing ÒMiscellaneous Reflections Extracted from the Works of Late Samuel Johnson.Ó Sixteenmo. 206 pp. Quarter red morocco over marbled boards, gilt spine. Edges stained yellow. Binding extremities lightly rubbed with some wear. Marbled paper and pastedowns very slightly curling at the edges and corners. Light foxing and intermittent light toning. Minor creasing to lower gutter margins and two small holes to pp. 203-206 with partial loss of text. Bookplate on front pastedown. A good copy of a scarce work First edition.