David Ramsay. THE HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 2 vols. (complete). Lexington, KY: Downing and Phillips, 1815. Third American edition. Contemporary tree calf, re-backed with gilt-ruling and gilt-titled labels (with portion of original labels retained). 8vo; 501; 488pp. Second volume with frontispiece with portrait of George Washington, biographical memoirs of Gen. George Washington, and list of subscribers at the end. Howes R35.

8 1/2 X 5 5/8 in.

David Ramsay (1749-1815) was a politician, historian, and doctor. He is perhaps best known for this two-volume set on the American Revolution, a war that he served in as a military surgeon. He spent most of his adult life in Charleston, South Carolina, unfortunately dying there tragically in the streets of the city when he was shot by a patient. While first published in Philadelphia in 1789, this edition of The History of the American Revolution is the rather scarce third American edition, printed in Kentucky the year of the author's death.

Boards with edgewear; former owner's bookplate on paste-down with ownership signatures and some additional faint writing on free endpapers; pages toned and foxed throughout, with offsetting from frontispiece and occasional small edge chip, mark, or stain; vol. I with reinforcement at front hinge, vol. II with small damp stain at outer margin of final few leaves and (2) leaves with small loss at lower margin.