EDWARDS, JONATHAN
An account of the life of the late Reverend Mr. David Brainerd, Minister of the Gospel, missionary to the Indians, from the honourable Society in Scotland, for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge, and Pastor of a church of Christian Indians in New-Jersey. Who died at Northampton in New-England, Octob. 9th 1747. in the 30th year of his age: chiefly taken from his own diary, and other private writings, written for his own use; and now published... Boston N.E.: Printed for and sold by D. Henchman, in Cornhill, 1749. The first edition. Period brown calf in an early sewn buckram jacket (N.B. not removed). 7 7/8 x 4 5/8 inches (20 x 11.5 cm); [2], xii, [18], 316 [i.e. 318], [2] pp.; the first state with pages 175 through 286 printed in fours and signed 2A-2O4 and none of the listed errata corrected. The binding holding on cords (and probably quite worn under the sewn buckram jacket); the preliminaries on better paper than the text, which is toned throughout, ownership of Edward Williams, September 11 1749 on the title and an inscription of Elizabeth Thornton dated 1804 on the blank verso of the title, very extensive annotations by Williams and other early owners on all blank pages at beginning and end, including a voluminous index, a very few ink notes in the text.

Written by the great American preacher, philosopher and theologian Jonathan Edwards, The Life of David Brainerd was a work that inspired American missionaries almost from the time of its publication. Edwards was a personal friend of Brainerd, who had died in 1747 of tuberculosis at Edwards's house (where he was nursed by--and affianced to--Jerusha Edwards, who contracted tuberculosis from him and died shortly after her fiancé). The final leaf is a bookseller's advertisement for Henchman. Evans 6311; Howes E56; Sabin 21927; Felcone, J. New Jersey Books 1992, 68.