The Freethinkers' Pictorial Text-Rook by Heston, Watson - 1890

New York, U.S.A.: The Truth Seeker Company , 1890. Full Title. The Freethinkers' Pictorial Text-Rook: Showing the Absurdity and Untruthfulness of the Church's Claim to be a Divine and Beneficent Institution and Revealing the Abuses of a Union of Church and State with Copious Citations of Fact, History, Statistics, and Opinions of Scholars to Maintain the Argument of the Artist. Watson Heston was an irreverent cartoonist who peaked in the late 19th century. His cartoons, which poked fun at religion in general and Christianity in particular, appeared in the famous freethought newspapers. Freethought is a philosophy that rejects authority and dogma, most notably that of organized religion in favor of conclusions reached by rationality and science. It calls for separation of Church and State using artwork and terms that still read so thoroughly modern. Scarce survival of this Authors' work as many of his titles were banned and burned. CONDITION Oblong 4to in Brown cloth with incised Black title and bright Gilt illustration to front (buffed through cloth at cnrs, o/w moderate wear, brush mark with white paint to spine heel, crease to bottom front cnr) 368 pages with illus throughout, mostly clean with finger marks to page edges, short tears to some page edges due to paper age and type (mostly not effecting content. Copy is mostly bright thogh slightly loose to a few gathers mid tome. ISBN: 0000000000. First Edition. Cloth. Very Good. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. Grphic Illustrated Cartoon Comics.