first obtainable American edition, 12mo, two volumes in one, 180 pp., original calf, leather label, some shelf wear and rubbing to binding, light toning to text, contemporary ownership signature of Henry Hollingsworth, else a very good copy. Housed in a modern 1/2 morocco and board slipcase. The first obtainable American edition, long thought to be the first, it was preceeded by the exceedingly rare 1767 Boston printing of this famous book. This edition is an exact reprint of the edition printed in Salisbury in 1766. This book was considered extremely suitable for the young at the time it was written. In the Young Lady's Parental Monitor, (no. 163), Lady Pennington severely condemns all novel reading, but makes one exception in favor of this work: "In justice however to a late ingenious author, this Letter must not be reprinted, without my acknowledging that, since the last edition was published, I have accidentally met with one exception to my general rule, namely, The Vicar of Wakefield. That novel is equally entertaining and instructive without being liable to any of the objections that occasioned the above restriction." Evans 12405; Hildeburn 2780; Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books, 74.