Minerva Press - Canadian Novel - Slavery
Yamboo; or, the North American Slave
£278
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 19 June 2024 from 10:00 BST
Description
A Tale. In Three Volumes. By the Author of The Bravo of Bohemia. London: printed at the Minerva-Press, for A. K. Newman and Co., 1812. Volumes 1 and 3 only (of 3), 12mo, [2] 243 [1], [2] 216 pp., contemporary half calf, marbled paper sides, both volumes lacking front free endpaper, contemporary ownership inscriptions to front pastedowns and to first page of text, traces of old ink-stamps (Bury free library) to title-pages, occasional light soiling, volume 1 binding with paper covering detached from rear board and lifting from front board, calf backstrip also lifting, title-page with very small worm track to gutter, volume 3 with damp-staining to signature B, worming to lower margins of final signature (K) (2)
Provenance
From the library of the late Robert Bogdan (1950-2022), of Boghead of Torries and Dykehead of Avochie, Aberdeenshire, geography master at Charterhouse and sometime chairman of the Scottish Castles Association.
Footnote
First edition, extremely rare, no other copy traced in auction records. Set in the 1790s and dedicated to Martin Hunter, commander-in-chief, New Brunswick, Yamboo is the tale of a runaway slave who is taken in by a Colonel Beresford and his family and subsequently accompanies him to India to fight against Tipu Sultan, ruler of Mysore. ‘The first 68 pages take place in New Brunswick and contain long descriptions of St John, Frederictown, defenses, fashions, Indians, etc., all taken from obvious first hand knowledge’ (MacLeod, The Minerva Press, p. 371).