Second Edition of the First Great American Work on Language

JOHNSON, A[LEXANDER] B[RYAN]. A Treatise on Language: or the Relation Which Words Bear to Things in Four Parts. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1836. 1st ed. 8vo. 26, [33]-274 pp., plus 32 pp. catalogue. Orig. cloth (faded), printed paper label (heavily rubbed). Lacking one front endleaf, two library stamps on title. Foxed. $1,500.00

Rinderknecht 38297. The very rare second edition (and final text) of the author's 1828 work, The Philosophy of Human Knowledge, or a Treatise on Language. Johnson used ordinary events of the secular world to explain language and to analyze semantic and philosophical problems. A nominalist account of language, placing words in either a physical or conceptual class and dividing reality into three classes, physical, affective and intellective. The outstanding American work on language in the 19th century. Johnson was born to a Jewish family in 1786 in England and emigrated in 1801, but his works are unlisted in American Judaic bibliographies. He studied law but never practiced. He made his living as a banker.