Elizabeth, Charlotte [Tonna, Charlotte Elizabeth] & Anonymous

THE RED BERRIES. [WITH] THE HISTORY OF JOSEPH NICHOLS

[New York] : Published by American Tract Society, 150 Nassau-street, 1850s. Item #42570

No dates, both circa 1850. History of Joseph Nichols is the first US edition. Period boards, 16mo (pocket sized), 16 + 16 pages. Includes engraved title pages and illustrations. 11 cm.
Two works of juvenile religious fiction bound in one volume. Considered one of the first “Christian Zionists,” Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna (1790 – 1846) “wrote prolifically under her baptismal name, Charlotte Elizabeth. She was born in Norwich, Norfolk, the daughter of Reverend Michael Browne, an Anglican priest and a canon at Norwich Cathedral….
In her Personal Recollections written at the end of 1840, Charlotte Elizabeth explains her interest in Jews and Palestine, or as her husband put it, 'her long-cherished hopes, the incipient restoration of Israel.' Some critics and historians see Tonna as a 'Zionist' –though strictly speaking the term itself did not come into use until 1896- and her novel Judah's Lion as a Zionist novel. Elizabeth's novel recounts the story of an English Jew, Alick Cohen, and his voyage to the Holy Land where, moved by his experiences, he converts to Christianity, retaining, however, his Jewish identity. The title of the novel is itself a subtle reminder of the theme of the inextricable and intertwined destinies of two nations, England and Jewish Palestine.
The character Gunner Gordon reflects on this theme; his sense of gratitude to Judaism recalls George Eliot's remark in her letter to Harriet Beecher Stowe that '…towards the Hebrews we western people, who have been reared in Christianity, have a peculiar debt, and whether we acknowledge it or not, a peculiar thoroughness of fellowship in religion and moral sentiment…[the English reveal] themselves empty of any real knowledge as to the relations of their own social and religious life to the history of the people they think themselves witty in insulting. They hardly know that Christ was a Jew…'" (Ibn Warraq, New English Review, February 2010)
Indeed, none other than Isaac Leeser, the most prominent Orthodox Jew in 19th Century America, chose to reprint books of hers as part of his Jewish Publication Society in the 1840s.
Publications of the American Tract Society New series 2, v. 3, no. 43 (Red Berries) and 44 (History of Joseph Nichols). Charlotte Elizabeth, author of The Red Berries, is the pseudonym of Charlotte Elizabeth Browne Tonna.
SUBJECT(S): Sunday school literature. Children's stories. Litte´rature d'e´cole du dimanche. Histoires pour enfants. Red Berries is listed in OCLC as 589872066, listing only 5 copies worldwide (BYU, LOC, Brown, NYPL, Free Lib Phila), and only a total of 10 holdings of any edition at all (all 19th Century)History of Joseph Nichols is listed in OCLC as 81570190. OCLC lists only 4 copies of History of Joseph Nichols (BYU, Columbia, UFLorida, Brown); OCLC lists only a single holding for an undated British edition of Nichols (with a variant title) published by the London by the Religious Tract Society; because both are undated they may actually be concurrent. Boards rubbed, binding loosening but still solid, paper, text, and illustrations bright and strong. About Very Good- Condition (AMR-67-53).

Price: $200.00