ATTACK ON PUBLIC SENSATION JOHN WILKES - AS ISSUED
[Wilkes, John]: Essay on patriotism, and on the character and conduct of some late famous pretenders to that virtue, particularly of the present popular gentleman. London: printed for Staples Steare, No. 93, Fleet Street. 1768.
An unbound copy, stab-stitched as issued, and with presentation note, of this attack on the radical politician, person of letters, and friend of American liberty John Wilkes (1725-1797).
"This pamphlet begins with an analysis of the career of William Pitt, but the opening pages are essentially a prelude to a long and sustained attack on the life and character of John Wilkes; published on the occasion of Wilkes's highly publicized return to London, after a period of legal and political exile on the continent. All aspects of Wilkes are discussed here. his literary abilities, his profligacy, his pornographic Essay on woman, his North Briton and his intemperate anti-Scottish bias, and much more; there are also remarks on such associates as the Irish dramatist Hugh Kelly. In the end Wilkes is dismissed as food for a public ravenous for the sensational: 'They must have something, and a Cock-Lane Ghost, an Elizabeth Canning, or a John Wilkes are all one to them'" (Ximenes description).
Details
One volume, 22.8 cms. x 15 cms., octavo, pp. [4] 83 [1]. With half-title (errata to verso). Unbound and stab-stitched as issued, with curling to edges and dustiness to first and last pages. Tear to top outer corner of title-page causing loss to an inscription to top right (to top left, a presentation note fully intact and copied below).
Provenance: 1. Presentation note "For Wiliam Fellows Esqr." (likely William Fellowes, F.R.S. (1706-1775) of Shotesham Park, Norfolk, or his son William (1740-1778)). 2. Ximenes Rare Books, List 97-2, Feb. 1997, #143 (cut-out from a catalogue, loosely inserted and annotated). 3. [Eric de Bellaigue].
Bibliography
ESTC T184586 [reference taken from JISC Library Hub Discover].
Peter D.G. Thomas, 'Wilkes, John (1725-1797)'. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online, 24 May 2008 (last accessed by us 17 March 2024).