JOHN DICKINSON (1732-1808)

In a series of carefully composed letters originally published anonymously in the Pennsylvania Chronicle beginning December 3, 1767, colonial American statesman, John Dickinson, outlined his grievances toward the British regulation of American freedoms. These letters created a great sensation throughout the colonies, and were immediately reprinted in pamphlets and newspapers in America. John Dickinson's Letters from a Farmer became the most popular, influential, and widely read Political statement of the American revolutionary period until the publication of Thomas Paine's Common Sense in 1776.

John Dickinson had close ties to both Pennsylvania and Delaware, and throughout his career he served in political office alternately in both states. Letters from a Farmer, written in the idealized persona of an industrious, peace-loving, and frugal American gentleman farmer, represents the two sides of Dickinson's personality: Dickinson the libertarian, American patriot; and Dickinson the conservative, propertied British subject.

Exhibited here is the first edition in book form, which came out in March, 1768. By June four other editions were published in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. London and Dublin editions appeared by the end of the year, and many new editions in the colonies were published in 1769. Also housed in the Special Collections of the University of Delaware Library is the second book appearance of Letters from a Farmer, published by Mein and Fleming of Boston in the same month as the first Philadelphia edition.