Brother Jonathan Newspaper, Vol. 6,  No. 1, September 3 to No. 17, December 23, 1843,

Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens

This is volume VI of Brother Jonathan, "a weekly compend of Belles Lettres and the Fine Arts, Standard Literature and General Intelligence."  Edited by John Neal, it was the first illustrated weekly newspaper in America. Most notably this volume contains part of a serialized version of Charles Dickens' novel Martin Chuzzlewit. Dickens is most famous this time of year for writing "A Christmas Carol" that appears in many versions on television. The index shows eight installments of Martin Chuzzlewit. The start of two of them are shown below. This is a rare volume, there was none listed on the internet in December 2005 and the volume of Brother Jonathan before this, Vol. 5, May to August 1943, which also has Martin Chuzzlewit installments, is listed for $550.

For the complete first edition of Charles Dickens classic novel "Great Expectations" published starting on November 24, 1860, see this listing of a unique bound Harper's Weekly.

 There is much more than Dickens in these 17 issues from 1843. There are articles on "The Rights of Women,"  Uncle Sam, the origin of State names, Daniel Webster and Ben Franklin, reports on the trial of Irish patriot Daniel O'Connell and much more. Below are pictures of some of these as well as the volumes cover.

The cover and the first issue are not in great shape, and front cover is held on by what remains of the leather spine. A child wrote on the front endpapers in pencil and there is some staining and foxing throughout, but it is pretty fresh and bright after the first issue which does not have any of the Dickens articles.  The Daniel Webster article shown above is in the first issue, so it is still more than readable.

Price: SOLD