Some Fruits of Solitude

SOME FRUITS

OF SOLITUDE

BY

WILLIAM

PENN

WITH AN

INTRODUCTION

BY

∙ EDMUND GOSSE ∙

LONDON

Archibald Constable & Co. Ltd

1907

DESCRIPTION

Bumpus Binding

(iv) + xxv + 170 + (iv)

Book measures 120mm x 95mm approximately.

Beautifully bound by Bumpus in full russet calf. Spine with five raised bands and gilt-boxed compartments with title, author and date in gilt. Single gilt fillet border and inner gilt work to both boards. Small portrait frontispiece to title page verso. Printed on superior quality paper. All page edges in gilt.

CONDITION

The binding is firm. Boards exhibit some minor wear and a few surface scratches, with rubbing to hinges and corners, and slight loss to top left corner of front board. Also, front board is a little blotchy. Typical dentelle shadows to paste-downs.

Internally the pages are very fresh and clean throughout. Small neat previous owner ink inscription to front end-paper.

INTERESTING

William Penn (1644 to 1718) was an English writer, religious thinker, and influential Quaker who founded the Province of Pennsylvania during the British colonial era. Penn was an advocate of democracy and religious freedom known for his amicable relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Native Americans who had resided in present-day Pennsylvania prior to European settlements in the state.

As one of the earlier supporters of colonial unification, Penn wrote and urged for a union of all the English colonies in what, following the American Revolutionary War, later became the United States. The democratic principles that he included in the West Jersey Concessions and set forth in the Pennsylvania Frame of Government inspired delegates to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia to frame the U.S. Constitution, which was ratified by the delegates in 1787.

A man of deep religious conviction, Penn authored numerous works, exhorting believers to adhere to the spirit of Primitive Christianity. Penn was imprisoned several times in the Tower of London due to his faith, and his book No Cross, No Crown, published in 1669, which he authored from jail, has become a classic of Christian theological literature.