8vo. 4, [1], 10-60pp. Complete despite erratic pagination. With an engraved portrait frontispiece. Uncut. Stitched, as issued. Dust-soiled, frontispiece creased and marked, small hole to centre of final leaf - touching text with slight loss of sense - scattered spotting.

The first edition, in original unsophisticated state, of John Corry’s (fl. 1792-1836) life of theologian and natural philosopher Joseph Priestley (1733-1804). Corry, some time an honorary member of the Philological Society in Manchester, has for the most part eluded biographers. He published numerous topographical works, children’s books, and satires, as well as biographies of George Washington (1800) and William Cowper (1803).