"A Life of George Washington, in Latin Prose", by Francis Glass, edited with Introduction [in English], and Vocabulary by J.D. Reynolds, published by Harper, New York, First Edition, Third Printing. "Third Edition" and "1836" is imprinted on the title page, copyright by Harper and Brothers; 1835; the frontispiece is engraved by W.L. Ormsby.

Provenance:
From the library of Charles Maples and is dated "Oxford, Feb.12 [and 18th], 1838."

Hard boards bound in leather [some soiling and wear, former owner name is written on the front and back covers, and inside]; 5" x 8"; inscription, and "Charles Maples B. / Oxford, Feb.18, 1838" is written on the front endpaper; Introduction, by Reynolds and Contents -xxiv pages + Washington ii Vita + Vocabulary 285 pages + 'Testimonials' + publisher's advertising; some soiling and wear, very good condition.

The editor, Reynolds, describes that Francis Glass was a humanist par excellence, a new Cicero, bringing the gravitas and eloquentia of ancient Rome to America. Glass would often express his discontent, writes Reynolds, that the life and deeds of George Washington, the "father of his country," were only expressed in modern languages and not in Latin, "not traced with a pen plucked from the wing of the 'Mantuan Swan'". The Mantuan Swan refers to Virgil, considered the greatest of all Roman poets by many."

Edgar Allen Poe published a review of this book in "The Southern Literary Messenger" [Vol. II, no. 1, December 1835, 2:52-54]. Poe states, "Mr. Reynolds is entitled to the thanks of his countrymen for his instrumentality in bringing this book before the public. It has already done wonders in the cause of the classics; and we are false prophets if it do not ultimately prove the means of stirring up to a new life and a regenerated energy that love of the learned tongues which is the surest protection of our own vernacular language from impurity, but which, we are grieved to see, is in a languishing and dying condition in the land." (53).....

"The clothing of modern ideas in a language dead for centuries, is a task whose difficulty can never be fully appreciated by those who have never undertaken it. The various changes and modifications, which, since the Augustan age, have come to pass in the sciences of war and legislation especially, must render any attempt similar to that which we are now criticizing, one of the most hazardous and awkward imaginable. But we cannot help thinking that our author has succeeded amerveille. His ingenuity is not less remarkable than his grammatical skill. Indeed he is never at a loss. It is nonsense to laugh at his calling Quakers Tremebundi. Tremebundi is as good Latin as Trementes, and more euphonical Latin than Quackeri - for both which latter expressions we have the authority of Schroeckh: and glandes plumbeae, for bullets, is something better, we imagine, than Wyttenbach's bombarda, for a cannon; Milton's globulus, for a button; or GrotiusÂ’ capilamentum, for a wig..." (Edgar A. Poe, The Southern Literary Messenger [Vol. II, no. 1, December 1835, 2:52-54].)

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