First Edition. Her lover Gilbert Imlay had suffered the theft of a valuable cargo by the Norwegian captain of his ship, and in 1794 suggested to Wollstonecraft that she travel there on his behalf to get compensation. Despite having a new baby in tow, Wollstonecraft immediately agreed and spent nearly four months travelling to remote and unfamiliar destinations to meet and bargain with officials, studying local customs, enjoying strange landscapes and risky sea journeys. “When Johnson published the Letters they found an enthusiastic public, not least among young poets. The wording of her description of the waterfalls she visited … appears to have played a part in inspiring Coleridge’s description of the sacred river Alph in Xanadu; and the theme of the book … set a fashion for questing romantic journeys. Byron, Wordsworth, Shelley, and Mary’s as yet unborn daughter Mary, who sends her Frankenstein north at the end of his story, all read and followed in Mary Wollstonecraft’s footsteps” (Tomalin, The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft). Godwin noted in his Memoirs (1798): “If ever there was a book calculated to make a man in love with its author, this appears to me to be the book.” As is often noted, these letters comprise the first published account in English of a woman travelling on business.
8vo. Recent half calf to style, black morocco label, marbled sides, old blue sprinkled edges. With the final advert leaf listing Wollstonecraft’s books from Johnson to date, the first bibliography of her work. Contemporary ownership inscription erased at head of title. A good clean copy.
