The History of The Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild, The Great; to which is added The Life and Actions of Jonathan Wild, by Daniel Defoe

New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Near Fine in Good dj. 1926. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. [nice tight clean copy, one-time owner's name at top of front endpaper, previous owner's initials plus date & place of purchase written along edge of rear pastedown (concealed beneath rear jacket flap); jacket itself is in decent condition, although a previous owner has "patched" several chips by partially backing the jacket with a roughly-matching yellow paper, held in place by lots of tape]. Fielding's great work of high irony, a purportedly "sober biography of this capitalist among criminals," a notorious London crook of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. First published in 1743, the book "has lost nothing of its emphasis as a commentary on the brutal egoism of 'great' men, and it has the added fascination of a detailed record of ingenious criminality." An appendix to the volume contains "one of the two pamphlets written by Daniel Defoe on Wild, at the time of the latter's execution at Tyburn." Number 687 of 3000 copies of this edition. .