Paradise Lost: A Poem, in Twelve Books (EARLY AMERICAN IMPRINT, HANDWRITTEN NOTE) John Milton

***VERY SCARCE early American imprint of John Milton's masterpiece Paradise Lost. Do not see another copy by the publisher, for any year, available for sale. *** Paradise Lost: A Poem, in Twelve Books Overall Condition: Fair, poem is textually complete with a front blank and a preliminary page following table of contents page removed. Published in Philadelphia in 1819 by Benjamin Warner. In it its original full sheepskin with the spine ruled and tooled in gilt and a gilt-lettered black leather spine label. Duodecimo (12vo), 5 3/4" x 3". CONDITION REPORT: Fair condition. Original binding. Spine tips' leather is chipped. Square spine, firm binding, quite worn and rubbed leather. Cracking to front joint. A small working hole to front pastedown. Antiquarian pen mark to fore-edge. Browned pages (typical for early American printings given the low-quality paper used). Top margin of title page excised. Top of Table of Contents table page cut away. Book 1 with multiple pages of faded antiquarian pencil marginalia. Water dampening stains to text block of Book One. Cresses, some bent corners, some margin tears and abrasion. Rear blank flyleaf with a beautiful contemporary inscription (my best translation): "How superior is Milton in the nobility of grief. In the last 4 lines of Paradise Lost, the reader has all the solitudes of the world open to our first parents; all the seas which water unknown lands; all the forests of the habitable globe, and we are left alone with all his sins, amid the concerts of creation." All in all, a well-loved, referenced and read very scarce early American printing of Paradise Lost in its original sheepskin binding and with a great written reflection of admiration for Milton's beautiful poetry by a prior American owner from the early 1800s.