Scott, William. Lessons in Elocution; or, A Selection of Pieces in Prose and Verse, for the Improvement of Youth in Reading and Speaking; To which are Prefixed, Elements of Gesture; illustrated by four plates, and Rules for Expressing with Propriety the various Passions of the Mind. Also, an Appendix, containing Lessons on a new Plan. To which is added, An Abridgment of Walker's Rules for the Pronunciation of Greek and Latin Proper Names, with a List of Classical Names which occur in the Work. Boston: C. Ewer & T. Bedlington, 1823. [7166]
Full calf binding, spine with gilt rules & red leather title label, binding worn yet very good with no cracks. All of the free end papers and the paper paste-downs removed, title page edge-tattered and soiled, a few leaves pulled but not detached, these same couple are edge-tattered affecting several letters. Two woodcut plates present; lacks the other two of the plates (pp. 17-18). 372 generally clean pp., light foxing, infrequent pencil marginalia, small speck of paper stuck to front board. Good. Leather bound.
William Scott (1750-1804), teacher in Edinburgh, author of several useful school texts. First published in Edinburgh, 1779.
A work memorialized in American history as the text used by Abraham Lincoln to learn oratory.
"Willam Scott's famous Lessons in Elocution, published in New Haven in 1799, included as illustrative material many of the most famous soliloquies and orations in Shakespeare This book when through many editions and was widely imitated, for if there was little time to cultivate the reading and writing of literature, there was ample incentive to practice oratory, both legal and political. Boys and young men, especially those on the frontier, had access to few books, and those they had were chewed and digested. Long passages of Shakespeare that Abraham Lincoln memorized out of Scott's Elocution stayed with him to his death and were put to practical use throughout his years in the White House." - McManaway, J. (1964). Shakespeare in the United States. PMLA, 79(5), 513-51