AN EASY INTRODUCTION TO THE GAME OF CHESS; Containing One Hundred Examples Of Games, And A Great Variety Of Critical Situations and Conclusions...With Instructions For Learners...To Which are added Caissa: A Poem By Sir William Jones; The Morals of Chess, By Dr. Franklin... [Benjamin Franklin] Two Volumes

London: Printed For David Ogilvy And Son, Holborn; And Vernor, Hood, And Sharpe, Poultry, 1806. Hardcover. Good. Item #21-8472

Frontis, 7 x 4, blue-grey boards, printed paper spine labels, 184pp, 142pp. Covers loose and spotted, Volume I front cover and ffep detached, corners bumped, spines gone except for small piece on Volume II, spine labels missing pieces, ink name & inscription (Evey? ? from her grandfather 31 dec-'87), a few loose signatures in Volume I else good. Dr. Franklin's essay "The Morals of Chess" is to be found in Volume II, pages 115-119. Benjamin Franklin started playing chess in the 1730s, which is also the time period that he started working on "Morals", it didn't become public until 1786. This essay was reprinted several times by the end of the 18th centrury and translated into French, German and Russian. It was originally printed on Franklin's Passy Press but no known copy has survived. This book, "An Easy Introduction" was extremely popular and was reprinted many times. FIRST EDITION, EXTREMELY SCARCE.

Price: $1,250.00

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