The Letters of Junius (Two Volumes, Complete)

Two full leather volumes, spines in six compartments separated by gilt borders and decoration, gilt lettering on red labels in one compartment. Junius is the pseudonym of the still unidentified author of a series of letters contributed to Henry Sampson Woodfall's Public Advertiser, a popular English newspaper of the day, between January 21, 1769, and January 21, 1772. Junius' aims were to discredit the ministries of the Duke of Grafton and subsequently of Lord North and to draw attention to the political influence of George III, who was trying to establish his own "personal government" by selecting his ministers from a group of subservient friends. Junius used ferocious sarcasm in attacking the public and private lives of Grafton and his associates, the Duke of Bedford, the Earl of Bute, and Lord Mansfield. Finally, in his 35th letter, he attacked King George himself, causing a storm of indignation and prompting the government in 1770 to (unsuccessfully) prosecute the printer, Woodfall, for seditious libel for having printed the letter. Junius' views were those of a radical Whig and an ardent supporter of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, who had been succeeded in office by Grafton in 1768. But Junius failed in his aims, for the ineffectual Grafton's fall in 1770 merely signaled the advent of Lord North's ministry. Apart from their significance as a literary controversy and their importance in the history of the freedom of the press, Junius' letters are notable for their style and the unsolved mystery of their authorship. They display little stylistic variety, and their tone hardly ever changes from that of sustained personal invective and of bitter, merciless sarcasm, but the writing has a fine boldness and liveliness, an urgency and blunt eloquence that still arrest the reader. Many attempts to discover Junius' identity have been made, including claims for Sir Philip Francis, the chief candidate; William Petty-Fitzmaurice, 2nd Earl of Shelburne (later 1st Marquess of Lansdowne); and Laughlin Macleane, who was Shelburne's undersecretary. Some 45 other candidates have been proposed less convincingly. Current opinion favors Sir Philip Francis. Expertly refurbished, former owner's name in an extremely elegent hand on each title page, library bookplates on each fep and a number written in the lower margin of the first text page of each volume (no other indications of library identification), corners bumped and worn, hinges strong, pages supple, both volumes appear unread. VERY GOOD. Ex-Library. 12mo - over 6¾" - 7¾" tall. xxxiv, 227; 259, (37) pages.