Description
[003909] Howard, John. The State of the Prisons in England and Wales, with Preliminary Observations, and an Account of Some Foreign Prisons. Warrington: William Eyres [Printer]; T. Cadell and N. Conant, 1777. First Edition. 4to. Hardback. Good. [9], 2-489pp, [21]; [7], 2-286pp, [10]. Published in 1777 and 1784. Full leather, later rebacked, smooth back, spine divided into six panels by gilt rules, title label to second panel, remaining panels with central gilt lozenge shaped device, gilt roll border to covers and inner edges, spot pattern marbled endpapers
Worn to extremities, with small amounts of loss to leather, corners bumped and worn. Internally some light foxing and browning to text, occasional pencil notes and underlining, inner joints renewed with matching marbled paper, plates are often browned and occasionally lightly foxed, but tolerably so, closed tear to fore edge margin of Z2. Previous owner’s name to ffep, and the armorial bookplate of Jerh. Harman to front pastedown
The main text is the first edition, the Appendix is the second and best, enlarged, edition, (originally published in 1780 but with only seven engraved plates), without the initial blank, but with the half-title and the ‘Directions to the Book-Binder’ leaf at the end, in addition to the extra plates Howard has added stories from his journeys in 1781 and 1783. Complete with twenty-one engraved plates and plans, almost all folding
The first edition of the “first major practical work on the subject … his single-handed campaign not only caused a revolution in his lifetime, but is the direct progenitor of subsequent work in the most critical branch of penal reform” (PMM)
Baumgartner 1 (Prisons) and 11 (Appendix); Garrison and Morton (3rd ed.), 1598; Goldsmiths 11625; PMM 224; Rothschild 1163; Wellcome III:306
