Lot 39
  • 39

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Estimate
7,000 - 10,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
  • The Watchman. Numbers I-X [All issued]. Bristol: "Published by the Author... And sold by the Booksellers and Newscarriers in Town and Country" (vol. I); "Published by the Author... and by Parsons, Paternoster-Row, London" (vols. II-X), 1 March-13 May 1796.
  • Paper, ink, leather
10 issues. 8vo (206 x 125 mm). Intermittent stains to a few pages only. Contemporary green calf gilt and marbled boards.

first edition of Coleridge's political journal, to be issued every eight days and so avoid the tax levied on weekly papers. 



 "I declare my intention of relating facts simply and nakedly, without epithets or comments; and if at any time the opposition and ministerial prints differ from each other in detail of events, faithfully to state such difference. It would be absurd to promise an equal neutrality in the political Essays. My bias, however, is in favor of principles, not men" (from the first issue).



Public response was rather muted, in spite of each issue carrying the tag, "That all may know the truth; and that the truth may make us free!" The truth lasted for ten numbers, with Coleridge stopping it as it "did not pay for expenses."

Literature

Ashley I, p.196; Tinker 677; Wise Coleridge 7