Count Roderic's Castle: or, Gothic Times, a Tale. Baltimore: Printed by Samuel Sower for Keating's Book-Store, 1795.

The rare first American edition of the anonymous Gothic tale, in a contemporary binding. Set in medieval Lombardy, it is the story of the adventures of Roderic the Hardy's son Rhinaldo and his wife Lady Isabel. Though no author has been identified it has been included in both the Women's Print History Project online (though here attributed to Susan Bogert Warner, the 19th-century writer born in 1819, after the present book's publication) and under the "Women of Letters" section of Stanford University Library's The American Enlightenment online exhibition. First published by London's Minerva Press in 1794, there may have also been a Philadelphia edition of 1795 but this is unrecorded in Evans. Rare at auction—the most recent record in RBH for the Baltimore imprint is 1905 at Henkels. The London edition has sold only twice in the past fifty years. Evans 28486; Minick, A.R. Maryland Printing 1791-1800, 227.

Two volumes in one, 12mo (161 x 98mm). One leaf advert at rear (some soiling to preliminary leaves and title). Contemporary sheep, red spine label (some loss to spine ends, corners rubbed, scratch to lower cover).