Author’s First Book, a Virginia Plantation Novel
Swallow Barn, or A Sojourn in the Old Dominion.
Philadelphia: Carey & Lea, 1832.
Price: $1,000.00
About the item
First edition. [ii], x, 312; iv, 320 + 32 pp. Carey & Lea publisher's catalogue at back of vol. 2. 2 vols. 12mo. Publisher's rose cloth-backed boards, printed paper labels, uncut. Portion of vol. I flyleaf torn away, foxing. Bookseller's ticket on front pastedown. Wright I 1569; BAL 11040; Seven Gables, First Books 162.
Item #314470
First edition of the author’s first book, a plantation novel set in early 19th-century Virginia, preceded only by several pamphlets and a short-lived serial. A series of sketches told from the point of view of Mark Littleton, a northerner describing a visit to Frank Merriweather's plantation Swallow Barn. Plantation life is romanticized as aristocratic and leisurely and slavery justified by Merriweather as a form of necessary benvelonce. The chapter "The Quarter" describes a tour to the Swallow Barn slave quarters.
