First American edition of Paine's landmark The Age of Reason, copyrighted and published only months after the Paris and London first editions, handsomely bound in crimson morocco gilt.

"We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand (Thomas Paine).

Part 1 of The Age of Reason was written in Paris, 1793, where Paine celebrated the causes of liberte, egailite et fraternite. Soon, however, Paine was disillusioned by the increasing violence of the revolution, and he openly denounced the execution of Louis XVI. Consequently, Paine was arrested by order of Robespierre. Paine managed to smuggle his manuscript to friend Joel Barlow, also friend to Thomas Jefferson, en route to the Luxembourg Prison on December 28, 1973, where he remained for more than nine months. Only after dissentient James Monroe replaced Gouverneur Morris as minister of France in July, 1794, did the American government wield its influence to secure Paine's freedom. 

Largely ignored by the French, The Age of Reason enjoyed astonishing success in Britain and America, where it was often called the "Devil's Prayer Book" or the "Bible of Atheism." Paine's "writings display his dedication to the principle that people everywhere would see that rights and liberty form the very foundation of human life and that no person should willingly relinquish them without a fierce struggle. By his rational analysis of God, government, and society, Thomas Paine personified the Age of Reason" (Jack Fruchtman, Jr.).

The publication history of part 1 of The Age of Reason is somewhat complicated; a definitive priority has not yet been fully established. In March of 1794, The Age of Reason was published in Paris in English by Barrois and in French by Gueffier. The first English-language printing is likely Barrois' 77-page Paris edition. A 55-page edition with joint imprint, printed in Paris by Barrois and sold in London by Eaton is likely the first London edition. John Fellows copyrighted it in New York on June 17, 1794, noted on the copyright page as well as in newspaper ads published by the Clerk of the District of New York in June and July. Fellows’ fist New York edition was “the first edition printed in our country” (Gimbel-Yale 89).

Paine’s first part of The Age of Reason rapidly arrested its American audience. Free of the cumbersome legal and political baggage which disenchanted a number of British publishers, a variety of US printers began publishing the work in 1794. 

This first edition copy conforms to ESTC pagination, (English Short Title Catalog; the British Library's database of works published in English, printed before 1800). Too, it contains an unrecorded additional page 191, source of text unidentified and Twenty-five precepts of Reason authored by J Grasset de Saint Sauveur.

Both front and back boards display gilt-embossed seal with motto “Esse et vederi” on a banner above an eagle rising with a branch, possibly from the collection of William Alexander Duer, former NY Supreme Court judge before he became president of Columbia University, then Columbia College, from 1829-42. Front flyleaf separated ; two pre-Title pages loose but attached. “Tom Paine” in unidentified manuscript hand appears atop Title page. 

Text fresh with only minor scattered foxing; half-title reinforced at gutter’s edge. A very scarce about Near-fine copy of Paine’s seminal work, handsomely bound.