The Republican, vols. I-XIV (Complete run missing only the first issue, which is supposedly unobtainable.)

London: Richard, Jane, and Mary Carile, 1826. [Carlile, Richard (1790-1843), editor.] The republican. Vols. I – XIV (all published). London: T. Davidson; R. Carlile, 1819-26. 209 x 130 mm. 19th-century half calf, marbled boards, red leather spine labels (lacking on some volumes), some volumes in need of rebacking, portion of marbled paper lacking from the front cover of Vol. XIV, light wear and rubbing. Some foxing and browning, but a good to very good set. Accompanied by detailed unpublished table of contents and index to the periodical compiled by a previous owner. First Edition of this famous radical periodical, a near-complete run lacking only Vol. V, no. 13 (replaced by Vol. IV, no. 13 in error); pp. 241-272 of Vol. X, no. 8; and the virtually unobtainable first issue (Vol. I, no. 1) of 27 August 1819, which was suppressed by the British government for its coverage of the Peterloo Massacre (Carlile himself was reportedly unable to obtain copies of this issue). Carlile, a tinsmith, became interested in radical politics during the economic crisis of 1816, influenced by William Cobbett, Henry Hunt and other leading advocates of political and economic reform. In 1817 he formed his own publishing business and began producing Sherwin’s Weekly Political Register (the precursor to The Republican) and various pamphlets agitating for parliamentary reform and freedom of the press; he also began reprinting the political essays of Thomas Paine, which were banned in England. On 16 August 1819 Carlile witnessed the infamous Peterloo Massacre, in which British troops attacked a crowd of about 60,000 people who had gathered at St. Peter’s Field in Manchester to demand parliamentary reform. Two days later he published his firsthand account of the incident in Sherwin’s Weekly Political Register; the government responded by closing Sherwin’s Weekly and confiscating Carlile’s stock of newspapers and pamphlets. Carlile changed the name of Sherwin’s Weekly to The Republican and continued to publish the journal even after his incarceration for blasphemy and seditious libel in late 1819. Carlile spent most of the next six years in prison, so printing and distribution of The Republican fell to his wife, his sister and a team of assistants, all of whom served jail sentences at various times for producing and selling seditious literature. Carlile was almost entirely responsible for the contents of each issue, though in time he shared some of the editorial responsibilities, collaborating with the reformer Francis Place and the wealthy Owenite Julian Hibbert. Highlights include numerous articles by Place as well as the first appearance of “What Is Love,” an influential early essay on contraception and sexual equality later published separately as Every Woman’s Book. The work of Percy Bysshe Shelley appears with frequency; Carlile printed (without attribution) Shelley’s Declaration of Rights and, in 1824, a lengthy review and generous endorsement of Shelley’s revolutionary epic poem “Queen Mab,” which coincided with Carlile’s new edition of the poem issued that year. .