The Annual Register, Or a View of the History, Politics, and Literature, for the Year 1772. Dublin, [Ireland]: Printed for H. Saunder, W. Sleater, D. Chamberlaine, J. Potts, J. Williams, W. Colles, T. Walker, and C. Jenkin, 1773. 

8vo. Contemporary calf, spine with 5 raised bands and 6 compartments, gilt lettered in one, one with red morocco gilt-lettered label. 

Important first year imprint of the poem "On Recollection" by Phillis Wheatley. 

Phillis Wheatley (ca. 1753-1784) was likely born in West Africa and was enslaved as a child. She was sold to John and Susannah Wheatley of Boston in 1761, where John encouraged her intellect and hired her a tutor. American publishers were reluctant to promote the work of an enslaved woman. While on a trip to England in 1773, she was taken into the circle of the Countess of Huntington, and arrangements were made for the publication of her poems. Her collection of poems was published in September 1773, and shortly thereafter she was emancipated. She is widely regarded as the first African American author of a published book of poetry. 

The poem "On Recollection" was first printed in The London Magazine in 1772 and later compiled in Wheatley's Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral the next year. Its publication in this anthology on pages 214-215 is accompanied by a brief biography: "Verses by a young African Negro woman, at Boston in New-England: who did not quit her own country till she was ten years old, and has not been above eight in Boston" and dedicated, "To Miss A---- M----, humbly inscribed by the Authoress."

Early printings of Wheatley's poems are becoming increasingly scarce on the market. A fine addition to any poetry collection. 

[African Americana, African American History, Black History, Slavery, Enslavement, Abolition, Emancipation]  [Ephemera, Pamphlets, Publications, Booklets, Poetry, Literature]

Scuffing to boards, some wear to hinges. Some dampstaining.