The Stranger, in America: Containing Observations Made During a Long Residence in That Country, on the Genius, Manners and Customs of the People of the United States; with Biographical Particulars of Public Characters; Hints and Facts Relative to the Arts, Sciences, Commerce, Agriculture, Manufactures, Emigration, and the Slave Trade

Small 4to. Quarter calf with gilt spine lettering and tan patterned paper over boards. xiii, 499pp, (1p), (6pp ads). Hand-colored aquatint frontispiece, engraved title page with hand-colored vignette, all called-for full-page aquatint plates (each hand colored), map, in-text vignette. Very good overall. Calf spine is rough about the edges, with hinges holding but a tad delicate, while boards are edgeworn; text block is tight throughout, with many pages moderately age toned and a bit soiled and others pristinely white; leaf vii-viii inset. Scarce first edition of this soup-to-nuts commentary, critique and Eastern seaboard travelogue of a long-term English resident, whom Howes tactfully observes offers a "Petulant view of U.S. life." But Janson's preface makes clear he has a chip on his shoulder and an axe to grind: "The rooted aversion in the hearts f the Americans against the inhabitants of Britain, was to the author a source of perpetual uneasiness, he was regarded as proud and haughty; while a distant kind of envious obsequiousness, tinctured with an affectation of superiority, was but too evident in the majority of his equals. Such being the case, it cannot be surprising that he was never so happy as to form a true friendship with an American." The aquatint plates are age toned to varying degrees, but all are the seldom-seen hand-colored variety. As is well known, the title page vignette represents the earliest image of the White House, and the plate featuring Mount Vernon one of the earliest images of Washington's residence. ABBEY 648. CLARK II, 99. FEDERAL HUNDRED 100. HOWES J 59. SABIN 35770.…