[JUDAH, Samuel Benjamin Helbert].

Gotham and The Gothamites,

Item #80493

[JUDAH, Samuel Benjamin Helbert]. Gotham and The Gothamites, A Medley. [i] - lvi, [1]-93, [1]pp. 12mo. New York: Published for the Author, and Sold by S. King, 1823. First Edition. Puvblisher's lettered yellow paper boards, upper cover detached, minor losses to top and tail of spine. BAL11020. Samuel Judah's talents were not quit equal to his ambition. His plays were all inflated bombast, and not all of them were produced, and those produced were howled down by the critics. "Embittered by his failure, Judah then produced his Gotham and the Gothamites, an invective which named names..." (Kunitz & Haycraft). "Immediately upon the publication of the book [Judah] caused handbills to be posted up throughout the city, offering a reward for the discovery of the author, and wrote anonymous letters to a considerable number of persons he had mentioned in it, which...informed them generally that the work had appeared..." (BAL quoting Charles Patrick Daly: The Settlement of the Jews in North America, New York, 1893, p. 142). Judah's identity as the author of Gotham and the Gothamites was discovered, which discovery provoked a lawsuit, as a consequence of which he was fined $400 and imprisoned, though he was pardoned by the governor after five weeks due to ill health. "An essentially superficial and absurdly vain person, Judah was a negligible writer, whose plays were just not quite bad enough to be funny" (Kunitz & Haycraft).

Price: $1,250.00