Octavo, contemporary calf with original red morocco label lettered gilt, (1) blank + (5) + 436pp, ownership inscription of John Hamilton in ink on the title. contemporary corrections in ink on pp.66, 77, and pencil annotations in the margin on pp.77 and 314-315.
Provenance: From the library of John Hamilton of Sundrum Castle (1739-1821), who was a student at Glasgow University and attended Adam Smith’s lectures on moral philosophy. He was a lifelong friend of James Boswell - they both matriculated from Glasgow on the same day - November 14th 1759. Boswell introduced him to Samuel Johnson in 1773, which is recorded in Boswell’s Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.The rare second edition of Adam Smith’s first published work [first edition 1759]. Adam Smith devoted the years 1755 to 1759 mainly to writing and publishing The Theory of Moral Sentiments. He had been appointed Professor of Logic at Glasgow in 1751 and elected Professor of Moral Philosophy a year later. It was this period at Glasgow College which Adam Smith was later to describe as “the period of thirteen years which I spent as a member of that society I remember as by far the most useful, and, therefore, as by far the happiest and most honourable period of my life”. It has been said that if the Wealth of Nations had never been written, this work would have earned him a prominent place in intellectual history. Sensitive, original, erudite, eloquent – it reveals the full stature of Adam Smith’s genius and insight into his tastes and personality. The book immediately established a reputation for him in learned circles well beyond the bounds of his own university. It secured for him an international reputation as a philosopher.On 30th December 1760 Adam Smith wrote to his printer in London William Strahan listing six errors in this second edition that must be corrected as totally disfiguring the sense and a further twenty-five errors of less consequence. The opposite leaf will set before your eyes the manifold sins and iniquities you have been guilty of in printing my book. As far as is known no errata was issued with this second edition and the errors remain. The first six were corrected in the third edition of 1767, and a further fifteen up to the sixth edition of 1790, and the remainder never corrected. Mossner discusses Adam Smith’s letter to Strahan describing this as “the mystery concerning the second edition”.Kress 5983. Not in Goldsmith or BL. Mossner, The Correspondence of Adam Smith, pp.73-74. Mossner, Adam Smith, The Biographical Approach, pp.13-15. Ross, Life of Adam Smith, pp.182-186.
GBP 9500.00
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