"AMERICA… MUST EVER RANK HIM NOT ONLY AMONG THE FIRMEST, BUT AMONG THE ABLEST, OF HER PATRIOTS"

(JONES, John Paul) SHERBURNE, John Henry. The Life of Paul Jones, from Original Documents in the Possession of John Henry Sherburne, Esq., Register of the Navy of the United States. London: John Murray, 1825. Small octavo, contemporary marbled boards rebacked in mottled tan sheep, red morocco spine label, original brown sheep corners. $400.

First English edition, published in the same year as the American first edition, of this history of the American naval hero John Paul Jones.

Although known in the United States as a hero of the American Revolution and the founder of the American Navy—and famous for the phrase "I have not yet begun to fight"—to the English his reputation was notably darker. As the Preface to this English edition points out, "Paul Jones is known as a rebel and a pirate… chap-books are even now to be purchased in which he is depicted in all the plenitude of terrific glory, the rival of Blackbeard, and the worthy successor of the Buccaneers." Shelf label. In a binding stamped with the insignia of the Society of Writers to the Signet, a private society of Scottish solicitors dating back to 1594.

Scattered soiling to interior, mainly to pages 10-11; contemporary boards rubbed. A very good copy.