A Journal of the Life and Travels of John Woolman in the Service of the Gospel
London: Edward Arnold for Essex House Press, 1901
Octavo (overall 15.5 x 12 cm, the pages 15 x 11.2 cm). No. 146 of 250 numbered copies. Frontispiece woodcut and ten-line opening initial by Reginald Savage, numerous three-line text initials throughout. Publisher's stiff vellum, spine lettered in black. Slipcase covered in natural silk bookcloth. Printed in red and black on fine handmade laid paper watermarked with the Guild of Handicraft device. Collates [3 ll.], 1l. (half-title), 1 l. (frontispiece woodcut verso), 388 pp., 1 l. (printer's statement and woodcut device recto, colophon verso), [4 ll.]. A few brown spots on the spine touching four letters in title, spine and covers very slightly soiled, the text block bright, tight, uncut and unopened. A fine copy, apart from the spots on the spine.
John Woolman, devout Quaker of the Mount Holly Meeting, made many journeys "in the ministry" in the custom among Friends of his time. His first journey in May, 1746 covered 1,500 miles in little more than three months. In 1756 Woolman began his famous Journal, now a classic of English literature. Throughout its accounts of journeys, the Journal is imbued with Woolman's incessant exertions against slavery. Embarking to England "1st of fifth month, 1772," he came to the London Yearly Meeting, which he inspired, for the first time in its history, to include in its Epistle a statement condemning slavery. Soon afterwards he fell sick and died on fourth-day morning, 7th of tenth month (October 7, 1772), his last journey recorded in the third person on the last ten pages of this volume.
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