Byrd, Another Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1739-1741 [Colonial Virginia]

Byrd, William; Woodfin, Maude H. [editor]. Another Secret Diary of William Byrd of Westover, 1739-1741: With Letters & Literary Exercises, 1696-1726. Richmond, Virginia: The Dietz Press, Inc., 1942. [10188]

Linen cloth hardcover with dark red titles to front & spine, 9 1/4 x 6 1/4 inches, contemporary bookseller's label on ffep. xlv, [4], 490 clean pp., with index. Very good. Hardcover.

The original obscure shorthand translated by Marion Tinling. 

The University of North Carolina purchased a collection of books that contained two manuscript note-books belonging to William Byrd of Westover, Virginia. They contained a diary and some 100 letters written in an obscure shorthand. They are translated and published here for the first time.

William Byrd (1674-1744), b. in Virginia; he was a planter, surveyor, a member of the Governor's Council (1709-1744), and a man of letters. "Byrd was educated and practiced law in England. He returned to Virginia in 1705, after the death of his father...He helped survey the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina and established the town of Richmond on the north side of the James River. He was also a prolific writer, and is perhaps best known today for his diaries and the manuscript narratives of his surveying, both of which are frequently anthologized in textbooks of American literature. Byrd typified both the values of British colonial gentry and the ethos of an emerging American identity invested in the improvement of self and of the colonial commonwealth." - Thomas L. Long, Encyclopedia Virginia.