viii, 253 [actually 255] pp. Second title page at page 81 included in pagination; pages 233-255 misnumbered as 231-253. (8vo) 7¼x4¾, period wooden boards covered in full panelled calf, modern rebacking, housed in a custom cloth covered slipcase. First Edition.
David Brainerd, (April 20, 1718 – October 19, 1747) was an American missionary to the Native Americans. Brainerd was born in Haddam, Connecticut, orphaned at fourteen and had an experience that intensified his dedication to Christianity at 21 in 1739. Shortly after, he enrolled at Yale, but was expelled his junior year for saying of a college tutor, "He has no more grace than this chair." The episode grieved Brainerd, but some two months later, on his 24th birthday, he wrote in his journal, "...I hardly ever so longed to live to God and to be altogether devoted to Him; I wanted to wear out my life in his service and for his glory …" The University later named a building after Brainerd (Brainerd Hall at Yale Divinity School), the only building on the Yale University campus to be named after a student who was expelled. He then prepared for the ministry, being licensed to preach in 1742, and early in 1743 decided to devote himself to missionary work among the Native Americans. Supported by the Scottish "Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge," he worked first at Kaunaumeek, an Indian settlement about 20 miles from Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and subsequently, until his death, among the Delaware Indians in Pennsylvania (near Easton) and New Jersey (near Cranbury). His heroic and self-denying labors, both for the spiritual and for the temporal welfare of the Indians, wore out a naturally feeble constitution, and on October 19, 1747 he died at the house of his friend, Jonathan Edwards, in Northampton, Massachusetts, whose daughter he was engaged to marry. 18th century Chippendale style bookplate of William Greenleaf, (likely the noted Revolutionary War era Boston patriot and Sheriff of Suffolk County, MA) on front pastedown; ownership signature of Mary A. Winchester on front free endpaper with inked note "Bought at Mrs. Saton's auction 1860" in the same hand; ownership signature of C.H. Howard, Dedham, Mass. also on this leaf; on the verso of front free endpaper is the 20th century bookplate of Henry Elton Moffette. Howes B-717. Evans 5748. Sabin 7340.
Condition:
Sympathetically rebacked, corners repaired, some wear to edges; lacking half-title, one leaf (pp33/34) with archivally repaired vertical distress line, a few leaves chipped in margins with no loss of text; foxing and age toning throughout; overall very good.