[Benjamin, Park; and Rufus Griswold]:

BROTHER JONATHAN. A WEEKLY COMPEND OF BELLES LETTRES AND THE FINE ARTS, STANDARD LITERATURE, AND GENERAL INTELLIGENCER. VOL. III. FROM SEPTEMBER 3, TO DECEMBER 31 [1842].

New York: Wilson & Company, [1842]. 4to. Original marbled paper over boards and quarter sheep. Binding rubbed and spine chipped. [4], 538 pp, as issued. Each issue 30, [2] pp [except for the final issue of December 31, which lacks page 540 and the unnumbered final leaf]. 18 weekly issues, profusely illustrated. Except as noted, Very Good.

This Weekly was a mixture of fiction, essays, commentary on current events. "Brother Jonathan was both sensational and very much given to serial fiction" [Mott].
"Brother Jonathan" was, according to Wikipedia, "the personification of New England. He was also used as an emblem of the U.S. in general, and can be an allegory of capitalism. Brother Jonathan soon became a stock fictional character, developed as a good-natured parody of all New England during the early American Republic. He was widely popularized by the weekly newspaper Brother Jonathan and the humor magazine Yankee Notions. Brother Jonathan was usually depicted in editorial cartoons and patriotic posters outside New England as a long-winded New Englander who dressed in striped trousers, somber black coat, and stove-pipe hat. Inside New England, 'Brother Jonathan' was depicted as an enterprising and active businessman who blithely boasted of Yankee conquests for the Universal Yankee Nation." After the Civil War he was replaced by "Uncle Sam."
Mott 359, 804. Lomazow 428. Item #37027

Price: $275.00