NEAL, John (1793-1876). Rachel Dyer: A North American Story. Portland, MA: Shirley and Hyde, 1828.

First edition of the first novel of the Salem witch trials, untrimmed in original boards, by the unsung genius of 19th-century American letters. Although published with little fanfare by critic John Neal in 1828, one can find in this book the seeds of much which came after in American fiction: struggles with racial conflict and sexual frustration, colloquial language and folkways, and a palpable sense of the ways that past injustice haunts the present time. Its setting and its cultural insights charmed and influenced writers from Nathaniel Hawthorne and James Fenimore Cooper to Mark Twain and Walt Whitman. Although many of the characters are real historical figures, the title heroine, Rachel Dyer, is the fictional granddaughter of Quaker martyr Mary Dyer. Neal's influence lives on mostly in his role as an editor and literary kingmaker, but this most popular of his novels stands on its own as an important contribution to the story of American literature. Sabin 52156 (reporting a portrait not otherwise in evidence); BAL 14863.

12mo (200 x 120mm). (Some foxing, dampstains at ends.) Contemporary linen-backed boards, printed paper label on spine (a little sunning to spine). Provenance: William Osborn (signature on flyleaf).