The Memoirs of Sir Richard Lovell Edgeworth, Esq. Begun by Himself, and Concluded by His Daughter Maria Edgeworth.

London: Richard Bentley, 1844 Third edition, the last one published during Maria Edgeworth's lifetime and with her final corrections. The first edition was published in two volumes in 1820. For this edition, the two volumes were compressed into one and Maria Edgeworth, while leaving her father's portion of the work untouched, rewrote her own contribution in order to give only what was necessary to complete the view of her father's life and character in as few words as possible. Brown cloth decoratively stamped and ruled in blind with a gilt-lettered spine. Octavo. Engraved frontisportrait of Richard Lovell Edgeworth. Three plates of engravings by Henry Meyer. Binding extremities lightly worn. Front hinge slightly cracked, but sound. The occasional minor tear or chip. Pencil notation on p. 486. Pencil inscription on front flyleaf. A remarkably fine, bright copy, rare in this condition, in the original cloth. Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744-1817) was an educational writer, engineer, and the father of writer Maria Edgeworth. He was a friend of Thomas Day and Erasmus Darwin. The Society of Arts awarded Edgeworth their silver and gold medals for diverse inventions (1767 and 1769). His work Practical Education (1798), written in collaboration with Maria, was strongly influenced by Rousseau's Emile, or On Education (1762) and introduced his ideas to an English audience. However, Edgeworth went beyond Rousseau, who developed his theories from his own ingenious mind and related an imaginary process; the Edgeworths brought a scientific method to their work.