The Evangelical Primer

A copy of the 1812 edition of Joseph Emerson's enormously popular Evangelical Primer, first published in 1809 and in repeated editions until the 1840s. In fair condition. Marbleized paper cover with leather spine sewn on. Emerson's Primer was the spur to Jonathan Fisher's own Youth's Primer, which he published in 1817. According to Fisher's own statement made in January 1811, he had found much to admire in Emerson's work when he first saw it, but thought of ways in which it might be improved; perhaps he had seen the original edition, which lacked illustrations; his second edition (1810) had thirty. Somewhat deflated, but unwilling to give up what he had begun, Fisher continued to make plans for his own primer and finally brought it out in November 1817. His version contained twenty-eight woodcuts, each however markedly larger in size than Emerson's. The donor, Kristine Lewis, discovered that a hymn written by Fisher called "The Dying Marianne (Mrs. Marianne Burr)" is included in the 1809 and 1812 editions of Emerson's Primer. Although no author is named in either edition, this hymn had been composed by Jonathan Fisher as an elegy to a deceased parishioner of his in Ashby, MA, where he had often preached before settling in Blue Hill in 1796. In his journal for 29 January 1795, Fisher records "Wrote a hymn on the death of Mrs. Burr.--Transcribed three copies of it." How the hymn made its way in Emerson's Primer fourteen years later remains to be discovered. Accompanying the primer are photocopies of two contemporary reviews