Beschreibung:

The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles John Smith 1624 SMITH, John (1580-1631). The Generall Historie of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles: with the names of the Adventurers, Planters, and Governours from their first beginning An° 1584 to this present 1624. London: printed by I.D.[awson] and I.H.[avilland] for Michael Sparkes, 1624. First edition, first issue of Smith’s masterpiece, “the foundation of England’s knowledge of America during the early period of colonization,” in a contemporary binding with dedication portrait of the Duchess of Richmond printed on silk (PMM). This work contains Smith's eye-witness account of the founding of Jamestown, his capture and rescue through the intercession of Matoaka (also known as Pocahontas), his observations during his time spent in Virginia (1606-1609), and his explorations of the New England coast (1610-1617). The Generall Historie is a major American primary source, incorporating much of Smith’s earlier writings as well as almost every other account of Virginia then in circulation—albeit heavily edited and redacted by himself—alongside accounts of New England and Bermuda and relevant private letters relating to the English colonies. The last copy in a contemporary binding to appear at auction was the rebacked Laird Park copy over 20 years ago. “Recounting his exploits among Virginia’s Algonquians, Smith boldly created his own personal history. He reinforced the words of his story with illustrations derived from de Bry, into which he inserted himself. Since the pictures were intended less to inform his readers about Algonquian life than to make his own story dramatic and believable, Smith may have used de Bry’s images because his readers would have been comfortably familiar with them. They had become symbols of America that could be manipulated independently of the reality that they purported to represent. At the same time, the ‘Indians’ they depicted became increasingly abstract concepts whose meaning for European readers lay not in their specific culture but in their role as foils for European adventurers” (Creating America). In crafting his own self-promoting literary legend, Smith also created an enduring work of American myth. As Margaret Stillwell notes, his works from this period are of interest not just for “their historical content but for their style. They mark the beginning of English-American literature and this, it must be remembered, was born under the influence of, and contemporary with, the writings of Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, and Milton. The Elizabethan knack of writing pungent English is evident in the writings of Captain John Smith ” The story he tells is an almost cinematic one of swashbuckling adventure, adorned with verses by friends and contemporaries. The book was printed by two printers, to each of whom Smith gave half the text in order to speed the printing process. Their miscalculations of text length created a break in pagination—there are no pages 97-104. There is only one printing of the text, although Smith continually updated the title-page of the work to keep it current and to reflect the death of James I and the accession of Charles I, whose portrait appears on this title. The present copy is the first issue title page, dated 1624, and the text in early impression, with “thir” for “their” in the last line of p. 90, and “degression” for “digression” in the shoulder note on p. 119. The maps are in various states, as in nearly all copies of this edition, itemized in the physical description below. According to the exhaustive prospectus of this work printed in 1623, Smith originally intended to include only three maps, but needed monetary assistance to realize this. It is likely the dedicatee, Duchess Frances of Richmond and Lennox, provided the necessary funds, ultimately enabling the addition of a fourth map. Some copies of this first edition are found with an engraved portrait of her by Willem van de Passe, or