Books

Bristol: Published by the Author, 1796. First edition. 324 pp. 8vo. Contemporary green half-calf and marbled boards, spine gilt in panels. Minor staining to a few leaves. First edition. 324 pp. 8vo. First edition of Coleridge's political journal, undertaken to "create a rallying point for the Unitarians and moderate democrats in a radical Christian journal" (Holmes vol 1 p 106). Issued every eight days in order to avoid the tax levied on weekly papers. Each issue carried the tag line, "That all may know the truth; and that the truth may make us free!" For all its ambition, the enterprise folded after ten issues as it was unable to cover its costs. Coleridge would undertake another single-author journal with The Friend (1809-10; 1819). Ashley I, p.196; Tinker 677; Wise Coleridge 7. Provenance: Derby Mechanics' Institute (deaccession stamp to final leaf)