Cheever, G. B. The American Common-Place Book of Prose, A Collection of Eloquent and Interesting Extracts from the Writings of American Authors. Cooperstown, N. Y.: H. & E. Phinney, 1841. [10888]
Full sheep with a black leather title label, light scuffing yet tight with fine joints, 7 x 4 1/2 inches. Contemporary printed school library bookplate by H. & E. Phinney of Cooperstown. 468 pages, foxing throughout. Good. Hardcover.
"Books of common-place are the amusements of literature. It is pleasant to have at one's side a well-selected volume, to which he may turn for mental recreation, when the fatigue of preceding exertion has rendered him unequal to intellectual effort. it is pleasant, also, to have before us the eloquent passages of our favourite authors, so that we may occasionally awaken and prolong the delightful sensations with which we at first perused them...The present volume is selected entirely from American authors, and contains specimens of American literature from the earliest period to the present day." - Preface.
The authors include Timothy Dwight, William Wirt, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Ticknor, Channing, Edward Everett, Daniel Webster, Miss Sedgwick, Cooper, Mrs. Sigourney, Washington Irving, Red Jacket, &c., &c.
George Barrell Cheever (1807-1890), b. Hallowell, was graduated at Bowdoin in 1825, at Andover seminary in 1830, and was ordained pastor of Howard street Congregational church, Boston, in 1832. In his preaching and writings he became well-known for his abolitionist and temperance views. He was a prolific writer, contributing to the North American Review, the Biblical Repository, and other periodicals. A controversialist, he defended Congregational Orthodoxy in his clashes with the Unitarians. He spent 30 days in jail for libel for writing Inquire at Deacon Giles's Distillery, which, though an allegory, still was pointed and personal enough for his adversary to win his case against him.
He was from 1846 to 1870 the pastor of The Church of the Pilgrims in New York City, where he continued to write, entering into controversy, treating with such issues as as the Dred Scott decision, the banishment of the Bible from the public schools, the operation of railroads on Sundays, the war with Mexico, intemperance, and slavery.
