The Looking-Glass for The Mind; or, Intellectual Mirror; being an Elegant Collection of The Most delightful Little Stories and Interesting Tales, Chiefly translated from that much admired Work, L'Ami des Enfams. A New Ediition with Thirty-Six Cuts, Elegantly Engraved
NY: Printed by W. Durell, 1795. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Early US edition, the first printed in 1794. Contemporary full calf 8vo, (6) 259. A variety of juvenile names in period cursive front and rears in pencil and gift inscription in adult hand in ink on the fly dated January 2, 1796, evidently to the original owner "Frances Lydy Wentworth ...as a New Years Gift" with Fanny's bookplate Portsmouth on front pastedown. Calf naturally worn, with chipped red leather title label at spine. Short side tears to leaves in first signature; the fly has a deeper tear, which has been stitched. . Still solidly bound. Arnaud Berquin (1747 - 1791) was a French children's author. This book, for which he is best known, was first published in France in 1782 as "L'Ami des Enfans", then translated roughly into English by Mary Stockdale and published by her father John Stockdale in London in 1787. Although "Looking Glass" in the Anglicized title invariably recalls Lewis Carroll's Alice, Berquin's stories consisted of events that might happen to children in their everyday lives-they did not contain fairy tales or other imaginative literature. Good. Item #013903
Price: $275.00