Life and Adventures of Peter Porcupine

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VG, 1927, private press, Ltd ed. In black quarter cloth over red marbled boards, corners brushed. Spine, titles in gilt, edges bumped lightly. In its plain paper wrapper, some marks. Internally, bookplate of Margery Wright to fpd, some light offsetting, half title, coloured frontis after Gillray, [1], 2-163 pp, [1] limitation, 1 pl (coloured by the Curwen Press), an edition limited to 1800 copies, text block edges uncut, many leaves un-cut, printed by T&A Constable Ltd, at the University Press, Edinburgh during May 1927. With an introduction by COLE, G. D. H. (George Douglas Howard) 1889-1959. Title continues: With other records of his early career in England & America Viz: Life & adventures. The scarecrow. Remarks of the pamphlets. Talleyrand: a spy. Farewell to America. A court-martial. A retrospect. The pieces were selected "to make a sort of autobiography of William Cobbett up to the time of his return from America in 1800." (Not listed at Tomkinson) Cobbett, political writer and farmer in 1791, wrote an anonymous pamphlet entitled The Soldier's Friend (1792), a passionate indictment of the harsh treatment and poor pay of the common soldier. At the same time Cobbett attempted to launch a court martial against the offending officers, and when this threatened to rebound on Cobbett himself, he and his new wife, Nancy Anne Reid (1774-1848), fled to France for six months and subsequently to the United States, where they remained from 1792 to 1800. See ODNB. (Also see Muirhead - Bibliography of William Cobbett read before the Bibliographical Society in January 1939)