The Convert: or, Leaves from My Experience [association copy]

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[472pp]: [iv], xii, 456 (last leaf blank [excised], penultimate two leaves ads); blocked & monogrammed terra-cotta cloth; 196 x 130 x 35 mm. The radical philosopher's second controversial work with "convert" in the title (after 'Charles Elwood; or, the Infidel Converted', 1840 -- in which he questioned the reliability of the bible); repudiating youthful socialist & Transcendentalist leanings, following his conversion to Catholicism in 1844. Viewing Catholicism as the only safeguard against undisciplined political progress (masquerading in the US as 'social equality' & 'free enterprise'), he grew tireless in his mission to convert a fundamentally Protestant nation to his unpopular, & seemingly regressive, authoritarian stance. Ex libris, the comparably militant Canadian theologian, Rev John Thomas McNally, with his signature on half-title. Born in Prince Edward Island, McNally (1871-1952) would become the first Catholic Bishop of Calgary (1913-24), fifth Bishop of Hamilton (1924-37) & ultimately, Archbishop of Halifax (1937-52). His lifelong campaign to redress the disproportionate French domination of Canada's RC church government, provoked similar contempt in Canada to the condemnations Brownson endured in the US (from common suspicion & mistrust of an Irish-Catholic insurgency). With three superimposed plates on pastedown, the uppermost reading: "Catholic Library of Portland Oregon", book number "48". After ordination in 1896, Rev McNally spent four years at St Patrick's in Ottawa, before being reassigned as secretary to Archbishop Alexander Christie in Portland Oregon (1900-3), where he apparently acquired the book. A godless frontier town from its incorporation (1851), Portland -- while yet considered the least religious city in the US -- curiously remains (among the minority who admit to being religious) predominantly Catholic. From Russell Kirk's 'Introduction' to Brownson's 'Selected Essays': "Lord Acton thought that Orestes Brownson was the most penetrating thinker of his day, in America; and that was a very high compliment indeed, for it was the day of Hawthorne, Emerson, Melville, Calhoun, and a half-dozen other men of genius. Certainly Brownson stands in the first rank of American men of ideas; he is, in some sense, the Newman of the United States." A sound copy, boards drab, joints intact, with only light wear at crown of spine. Leaves dampstained at lower tip, with three torn corners; while both ffe & blank lower flyleaf have been excised. A significant association copy of a very important memoir. N° de ref. del artículo 004245

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