1842 BROTHER JONATHAN EXTRA COLLECTION 1st Eds. CAPTAIN MARRYAT Illustrated RARE For Sale

Up for sale is a rare find, a collection of bound \"extras\" from the pioneering (and often-pirating) American weekly, BROTHER JONATHAN: A Weekly Compend of Belles Lettres and The Fine Arts, Standard Literature And General Intelligence. Published in New York by Wilson and Company in 1842. This volume appears to contain all of the extras, issued as Supplement to BROTHER JONATHAN ranging from April to June of 1842.

Brother Jonathan was a weekly publication operated by Benjamin Day from 1842 to 1862, and was the first weekly illustrated publication in the United States. Benjamin Day founded the first penny newspaper in the United States, The New York Sun, in 1833, but sold the paper to his brother-in-law, Moses Yale Beach, in 1838. After trying a few other publishing ventures, in 1842 Day formed a partnership with James G. Wilson to publish the weekly Brother Jonathan, focusing on reprinting (really, pirating) English fiction (where no royalties were paid to the authors).

The paper was somewhat notorious for publishing English fiction such as Charles Dickens, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, simultaneously (or on occasion, prior) to the authorized American publication.However, the paper also published works by James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman.

I currently have three bound volumes of the newspaper up for sale, but Brother Jonathan issued an \"extra,\" which was typically a full-length, double-columned edition of a recently released British novel, and the newspaper has the dubious distinction of having published the true first American edition of several distinctive works of the period. These extras were often issued with pale yellow covers, and were not meant to last very long, unless they were bound together, as here.

This bound volume contains the following first American editions of these novels. Most have the original pale yellow covers, unless otherwise noted, and are listed in the order of their appearance in the volume, along with the date:

ZANONI: or, The Secret Order, by Edward Lytton Bulwer. April 9. 1842. (no covers) 80pp; double column.

GASPAR: The Pirate of the Indian Seas. A Tale of the Ocean. [by John Banim] \"From the DublinUniversity Press, where originated those admirable stories CHARLES O\'MALLEY, HARRY LOREREQUER, JACK HINTON, &c., &c., &c.\"First American Edition. June 20, 1842.(intact covers, with image of \"Lady Rachel\" on rear). 48pp; double column.

(Anonymous. But The Literary Garland of 1841 wrote a scathing review of the Gaspar, calling itwithout \"one redeeming feature\" and without\"a single quality to wrest it from that oblivion which alone can save its author\'s fame from ruin.\" They also mention that it was by the author of \"Tales of the O\'Hara Family,\" which was written by Irish author John Banim.)

Father Connell; A Romance of Ireland, by the Author of Tales of the O\'Hara Family, &c., &c. [John Banim] First American Edition. (intact covers).June 25, 1842.48pp.

The Adopted Son: A Legend of the Rebellion of Jack Cade, by Paul Pindar. First American Edition. (intact covers) July 25, 1842. 48pp.

The Captain\'s Wife. By the Author of \"Cavendish,\" \"The Flying Dutchman,\" \"Naval Surgeon,\" \"Port Admiral,\" &c., &c. First American Edition. (intact covers.) (no date) 48pp.

Percival Keene. A New Novel, by Captain Marryat. First American Edition. (intact covers) September 21, 1842. (no covers, but illustration on back of rear page, suggesting it might have been issued without one.) 63pp.

The Tempter and the Tempted, by the Baroness de Calabrella. (no yellow covers). August 31, 1842. 48pp.( Dampstain begins in top margin in this issue and extends to the rest below.)

Hungarian Tales and Legends, by Miss Pardoe. First American Edition. August 17, 1842. \"Illustrated with a splendid engraving.\" (no covers) 48pp.

Eva: A True Story of Light and Darkness, The Ill-Omened Marriage, and Other Poems, by Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer. June 11, 1842. (intact yellow covers). 48pp.

Nine first American editions, all bound as one.

The Captain Marryat selection is a particularly rare fine, as are the Bulwer\'s. The \"Gaspar\" example is very obscure, and even today, Tampa Bay has a celebration for a pirate named Gaspar that many historians believe does not exist and wasn\'t mentioned in print prior to the 20th century -- this seems to prove that theory wrong.