Philip Stanhope (Lord Chesterfield). The American Chesterfield, or Way to Wealth, Honour, and Distinction : being selections from the Letters of Lord Chesterfield to his Son; and extracts from other eminent authors, on the subject of Politeness : with Alterations and Additions, suited to the Youth of the United States; By a Member of the Philadelphia Bar. Philadelphia: Published by John Grigg, 1828. [11477]
Full calf with a black leather spine title label, worn with a patch of leather missing from the front cover, sometime shellacked giving a shiny appearance, joints rubbed, inner end paper hinges open making the covers a bit wobbly. 12 x 7 cm (4 3/4 x 3 inches). Small printed signature bookplate of Edmd. W. Hubard, Va." Engraved frontispiece of a woman reclining on a couch and reading a book, engraved by G. B. Ellis. Extra engraved title page of three nearly naked women embracing, entitled The Graces, also engraved by Ellis. The tissue guard between the two engravings is missing. [i]-iv, [5]-286 pages, counted and complete. The last chapter, "The Art of Carving," has 27 woodcuts demonstrating how to carve various meats. The text has foxing, infrequent pencil marks in the margins, and one leaf with a bottom margin corner torn away. Fair. Hardcover.
"Sterotyped by J. Howe" on the copyright page.
The previous owner, Edmund Wilcox Hubard (1806-1878), b. & d. Farmville, Virginia, was a US Representative from the district of Lynchburg, serving as a Democrat from 1841 to 1847. During the first American Civil War he was a colonel of a militia regiment and an appraiser for the Confederate States Government to regulate the value of the Confederate dollar.
Philip Stanhope (1694-1773), b. & d. at London, England. Stanhope was the Fourth Earl of Chesterfield, "a British statesman, diplomat, and wit, chiefly remembered as the author of Letters to His Son and Letters to His Godson - guides to manners, the art of pleasing, and the art of worldly success...Chesterfield's winning manners, urbanity, and wit were praised by many of his leading contemporaries, and he was on familiar terms with Alexander Pope, John Gay, and Voltaire.
"He was the patron of many struggling authors, though one of them, Samuel Johnson, condemned him in a famous letter (1755) attacking patrons. Johnson further damaged Chesterfield's reputation when he described the Letters as teaching 'the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing master.'
"Charles Dickens later caricatured Chesterfield as Sir John Chister in Barnaby Rudge (1841)...Defenders of Chesterfield's letters, which were not written for publication, consider this an injustice and argue that his advice is shrewd and presented with wit and elegance." - Encyclopedia Britannica online.
