A new French and English grammar. Wherein the principles are methodically digested, with useful notes and observations, explaining the terms of grammar

The First French Grammar Printed in the United States, written by an early Harvard French Instructor 8vo, (195 x 120 mm). 141 pp., 11 ff., 88 (i.e. 89) pp. Contemporary sheepskin with repairs to front board, raised bands to spine, green lettering piece, traces of rodent damage to the spine, with one compartment entirely gnawed away. Light to heavier foxing, second leaf remargined, corner of pp. 101-102 torn away but unaffecting text, small wormhole track in the upper margin of pages 19 through 64, occasionally affecting a single letter. Rare first edition of the first French grammar printed in the United States, a landmark of early American printing and language pedagogy, produced by Harvard’s first appointed instructor of French, printed in Boston. "One of the earliest books of its class printed in America." (Sabin). The author was among the earliest instructors of French at Harvard College, where he taught from 1783 to 1785. Prior to his appointment, he served as assistant to the French Consul General during the American Revolutionary War. As noted by George Emery Littlefield in Early Schools and School-books of New England (1904): "In 1783 John Mary was appointed French instructor and immediately proceeded to carry out a long-cherished plan of publishing a grammar." French instruction at Harvard had previously been offered on an informal basis; by the late 18th century the college had begun to regularize language teaching, making Mary's publication a landmark in the history of American education and the dissemination of French language studies in the new republic. Following his tenure at Harvard, Mary settled in New York, where he collaborated with the Irish lawyer John O'Connor and his wife, Eliza Harriot, one of the pioneering advocates of female education in the United States. Together they pursued several publishing ventures, discussed by Mary Sarah Bilder in Female Genius: Eliza Harriot and George Washington at the Dawn of the Constitution (2022). Sabin 45039; Evans 18575.…