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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Entry in the Stationers' Register

Michael Sparks

Entred for his Copie under the
handes of master Doctor [Thomas]
Goad and master [Humphry] Lownes
warden The History of Virginia,
The Summer Ilands and newe England

by John Smith vjd

(Arber, Registers, IV, 121.)

Editions

    Early:

    1624.

  • THE || GENERALL HISTORIE || OF || Virginia, New-England, and the
    Summer || Isles: with the names of the Adventurers, || Planters, and Governours
    from their || first beginning An: 1584. to this || present 1624. || With the Proceedings
    of those Severall Colonies
    and the Accidents that befell them in all
    their
    || Journyes and Discoveries. || Also the Maps and Descriptions of all those ||
    Countryes, their Commodities, people, || Government, Customes and Religion ||
    yet knowne. || Divided into sixe Bookes || By Captaine John Smith sometymes
    Governour
    || in those Countryes & Admirall || of New England. || London. || Printed by
    I.D. and || I. H. for Michael || Sparkes. 1624. ||

    Folio, engraved title page and four folded maps, pp. xii, 248 [240].) (in two,
    inserted after the title; A-N and P-Ii in fours. (Subtract eight pages from 248,
    since sheet O was not printed.)

    There was but one edition, with one setting of type, but there were several
    issues as listed below. To speed the printing, the manuscript was divided between
    John Dawson (identified by the device on the printed title page of the 1625 issue),
    who was responsible for the first, second, and third books, and John Haviland, who
    printed the remaining three. (Dawson had printed the Prospectus, as has been
    noted, and Haviland would print Smith's last three works.) Since it is evident that
    Dawson got little more than two-fifths of the total manuscript, too many sheets


    488

    were allotted to him, with the result that O was omitted and N4 was ineptly
    filled by reprinting commendatory verses from the Description of N.E. Consult
    Sabin, Dictionary, XX, 226-244, for full details regarding the various issues and the
    states of the title page and the various maps; but note that the issues here listed
    have been adjusted to correspond with those in the STC.

  • 1625.

  • Second issue, with the engraved title of 1624 followed by a printed title
    that contains Dawson's device and differs only in the division into lines.

  • 1626.

  • Third issue, with the second state of the engraved title, which consists in the
    change of the two dates 1624 to 1626, the addition of a crown to "Prince" Charles,
    and the rewording "Carolus Rex" for "Carolus Princeps."

  • 1627.

  • Fourth issue, with the third state of the title, changing the imprint date to
    1627 but leaving the date 1626 in the text.

  • 1631.

  • Fifth issue, with the fourth state of the title, the imprint date being changed
    to 1631 (copies in the Folger and John Carter Brown libraries only).

  • 1632.

  • Seventh issue, the same, but with the head of King Charles re-engraved to
    look older and to face the reader.

    A six-line Errata slip is found in a few surviving copies, pasted in regardless
    of issue. In the present edition this has been appended to p. 248. It is interesting to
    observe that only one error, the first, pertains to the part printed by John Dawson,
    which may mean that Smith did not trouble John Haviland with his presence
    during the printing.

    Modern:

    1812.

  • A General Collection of Voyages and Travels ..., ed. John Pinkerton (London),
    XIII.

  • *1819.

  • The True Travels ... [combined with] The Generall Historie of Virginia ...,
    printed by William W. Gray (Richmond, Va.).

  • 1884, etc.

  • Smith ... Works, 1580-1631, ed. Edward Arber (Birmingham).

  • 1907.

  • The Generall Historie of Virginia ... Together with the True Travels ... and A
    Sea Grammar
    (Captain John Smith's Travels) (Glasgow). The reprints of 1819 and
    1907 combined the Generall Historie and the True Travels, which reveals sound
    reasoning in the present editor's opinion. See the Introduction to the True Travels
    in Vol. III, below.

  • 1967.

  • Captain John Smith's America: Selections from His Writings (extracts), ed. John
    Lankford (New York, Evanston, Ill., and London).

  • 1970.

  • Captain John Smith's History of Virginia: A Selection (extracts), ed. David
    Freeman Hawke (Indianapolis, Ind., and New York).


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