Rush-Light.
Item #81005
[COBBETT, William]. The Rush-Light. 15th March, 1800. By Peter Porcupine. Being the Third Number of Volume I. [New-York]: William Cobbett, 1800. [113]-160pp. Orig. printed wrappers, sewn as issued. Wrappers worn, some scattered toning and foxing, else very good. Gaines 53c. Evans 37198. William Cobbett (1763-1835), the fiery Englishman who took refuge in the newly-independent United States in the 1790s, was the publisher of the Porcupine's Gazette, a daily newspaper. The amazingly scurrilous Rush-Light was aimed at further vilifying Dr. Benjamin Rush, whom Cobbett so ridiculed during the yellow fever epidemic of 1797 that he was tried and prosecuted for libel, ending in a verdict against him for $5,000. Cobbett, undaunted, moved to New York and continued his tirades against Rush.
Price: $250.00