Weiser, R. Luther by a Lutheran; or, A Full-Length Portrait of Doctor Martin Luther: being A Comprehensive, though condensed and correct History of the Life and stupendous Achievements of the Great Reformer. Baltimore: T. Newton Kurtz, 1853. Sixth Thousandth Edition, Revised and Corrected. [10525]
Black publisher's cloth stamped in blind & gilt, gilt spine titles dull, 7 1/2 x 5 inches. Several ink signatures on the front end papers. Steel-engraved portrait with tissue guard, 443 pp. plus publisher's catalogue. First few leaves stained; we tightened up the title page hinge with some pH neutral paste. Good. Hardcover.
“In presenting the Life of Luther to the American public, it would seem proper to give a few reasons for such an undertaking at this time. It may be asked and no doubt will be, have we not Lives of Luther in abundance? Why then add another to the list? It is true we have D’Aubigne, and Milner, and Scott, and Bowers, and Tischer, and a number in inferior works; but it is a remarkable fact, that we have not in the English language a single life of Luther, that pretends to give any thing like a correct and extensive account of the great Reformer, written by a Lutheran. And yet we humbly conceive that the great Reformer ought to be fairly represented in English by a member of the church that bears his illustrious name.” - Preface.
Rev. Reuben Weiser (1807-1885), b. Womelsdorf, Pennsylvania; d. Denver, Colorado. Weiser was for fifty years a Lutheran pastor, and at the time this book was published he was the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church at Andesville, Pennsylvania. He served for some years on the faculty of the Iowas Central college in Des Moines, returning to Pennsylvania as pastor of a Lutheran church in Minersville. In 1872 his relatives convinced him to move to Colorado, where he edited The Colorado Miner and became the owner of several successful mining ventures.
"In 1846 he published a work entitled 'The Life of Martin Luther,' that immediately commanded such universal attention that several editions were rapidly disposed of, and won for the author an enviable reputation." Obituary in The Colorado Miner, December 12, 1885.
