Rare and important book: The History of the Late War in North-America and the Islands of the West-Indies, including the Campaigns of MDCCLXIII and MDCCLXIV against His Majesty's Indian Enemies, by Thomas Mante. First edition. London: printed for W. Strahan and T. Cadell, 1772. Hardcover bound in full brown calf, 9.75 x 11.75, 542 pages plus 18 maps and elusive errata leaf. The volume is complete with all of its engraved maps, most folded and quite large; these include: "Fort Beau Sejour"; "Lake Ontario to the Mouth of the River St. Lawrence"; "Lake George"; "A Plan of Fort Edward & Its Environs on Hudsons River"; "Communication Between Albany & Oswego"; "Attack on Louisbourg"; "The Attack of Ticonderoga"; "Plan of Fort Pitt"; "Guadaloupe"; "Attack on Quebec"; "A Sketch of the Cherokee Country"; "The River Saint Lawrence from Lake Ontario to the Island of Montreal"; "A Plan of the Attack upon Fort Levi"; "River St. Lawrence from Montreal to the Island of St. Barnaby…& the Islands of Jeremy"; "A View of the Coast of Martinico Taken by Desire of Rear Adml Rodney"; "Attack of the Havanna"; "Plan of the Retaking Newfoundland"; and "Part, of the West Coast, of the Island of Saint Lucia." Book condition: G/None, with front board detached, heavy wear to spine, some foxing and minor dampstaining throughout, varying levels of offsetting to map plates, some small edge tears to plates, and the bookplate of Joel Davis Madden, Jr., affixed to the front pastedown.
Thomas Mante was an English army officer, historian and military writer, and, later, a spy in the pay of the French government. His History of the Late War in North-America offers detailed narratives of the French and Indian War, with coverage of Braddock's campaign and the other frontier and Canadian campaigns of the conflict, as well as Pontiac's War, in which Mante served under Col. Dudley Bradstreet. George Washington's involvement is detailed in depth, including an account of his 1753 escape from assassination by an Indian acting as his interpreter and guide. The illustrations include several seminal maps which are the most accurate produced to that time, and are highly sought even on their own. Bibliographer Wright Howes proclaimed Mante's War in America as the 'best contemporary account' of the war, while Joseph Sabin wrote: 'Copies with all the maps are scarce. It is probable that but few were printed, although the large and beautiful plans and military maps (which gave it so great a value), must have made its production a work of much expense.' A superb book of immense historical and cartographical importance.
Joel Davis Madden, Jr., left Princeton University in 1905 and moved west to make his fortune in the railroad industry. He went on to become an executive with the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and died suddenly in 1928 at the age of 41. His book collection, offered by his granddaughter, has not been publicly offered or privately sold in a century.
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