(Hale, Nathan) | A book from the college library of Nathan Hale, schoolmaster and martyr spy

(Hale, Nathan)

Marcus Tullius Cicero. De Oratore. Or, his Three Dialogues upon the Character and Qualifications of an Orator (trans. William Guthrie). London: Printed for T. Waller, 1755

8vo (198 x 121 mm). Scattered staining and foxing. Contemporary calf; rubbed, rebacked and resewn, preserving much of original spine, some restoration to endpapers. Brown cloth folding-box, green morocco spine label.

A college textbook signed five times by Nathan Hale, schoolmaster and martyr spy of the American Revolution. Hale has signed the front endpapers of the volume "Nathan Hale his book" (twice), "Nathan Hale" (twice), and "Nathan" (once). The volume is also signed by other students, including Hezekiah Ripley, Samuel Whiting, and Elizur Wright.

After graduating from Yale in September 1773, the nineteen-year-old Hale visited his Uncle Samuel, the head of the renowned Latin School in Portsmouth. Nathan's first teaching post was at East Haddam, Connecticut, but he soon transferred to the more congenial surroundings of New London. But scarcely eighteen months after beginning his teaching career, Hale forsook his pupils to enlist in the colonial army, and in the fall of 1776, by then a captain, he undertook the espionage mission for Washington that led to his capture as a spy by the British. On 22 September 1776, Hale was hanged in New York after uttering his imperishable words of farewell: "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country."

Because of his early death, Nathan Hale left behind few writings; his scarce signature is, appropriately for a teacher, most frequently—albeit still seldomly—met with in his books. This is the first book signed by Hale to appear at auction since we sold his copy of Homer in 1999.

REFERENCE

Celebration of My Country 31; ESTC T170521

PROVENANCE

Mrs. Philip D. Sang (Sotheby's New York, 27 March 1985, lot 56)