Page 122 - Gullivers

First edition 1726
William Wood’s patent to mint this copper coinage for use in Ireland. His pamphlets, however, went beyond the immediate issue and made claims that Ireland had a right
to make its own laws. A proclamation
was issued against the anonymous author, and the printer of the pamphlets, John Harding, was arrested and jailed, he died in prison in April 1725. Swift’s role in the Wood’s halfpence controversy earned him the contemporary title ‘Hibernian patriot’ and the freedom of the city
of Dublin. The original editions of the “Drapier’s letters”, printed by Harding in 1724, are in the Gilbert Library as well as a collected edition of all the letters issued the following year by George Faulkner. Several of these pamphlets were originally collected by the Newenham family of Belcamp Hall in Coolock and form part of the Newenham Pamphlets, purchased by John Gilbert in 1884.
The printer and bookseller, George Faulkner, became Swift’s Dublin printer about 1729, receiving printing rights
to many of his works, and publishing some of Swift’s journalistic pieces in his newspaper Faulkner’s Dublin Journal. Faulkner continued in his capacity as Swift’s publisher until his own death in
1775. He was instrumental in collecting Swift’s works and making them available to the reading public. A collected edition of works in four volumes, printed on
fine Genoa paper, was published by subscription by Faulkner in 1735. The publication was supervised by Swift and textual errors were corrected. Faulkner’s role was critical in identifying some lesser-known pieces written anonymously by Swift.Were it not for his collected edition published in Swift’s lifetime, and with his co-operation, some of these items might not have survived, or might not now be attributable to Swift. Faulkner published a more extensive collected edition in 1763, the first posthumous Works, for which he gathered up a wide range of material from Swift’s friends. Several editions of Collected Works have
a place in the collections in fine Dublin bindings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Examples include the eleven volume Works published by Faulkner in 1763, bound in a lovely Dublin binding
of contemporary sprinkled calf with
a wide gilt border on the covers, spine decorated in gilt and all edges gilt; a 20 volume collected edition, printed by Faulkner in 1772, bound in contemporary
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