China; its state and prospects, with especial reference to the spread of the Gospel; containing allusions to the antiquity, extent, population, civilization, literature, and religion of the Chinese
New York: Crocker & Brewster, 1838. First American edition, small 8vo, pp. xv, [1], [13]-472; folding frontispiece map, 6 wood-engravings by G. Baxter on 3 plates; a fine, bright copy in original brown cloth, gilt-lettered spine. Walter Henry Medhurst (1796-1857) was an English missionary who served an apprenticeship in the printing trade before joining the Missionary Society. He was sent to Malacca in 1817 where he spent almost 20 years doing Protestant missionary work in what is now Indonesia. It was in Batavia (Jakarta) that he printed on his lithographic press the first English-Japanese dictionary in 1830. After the Opium War he moved to Shanghai in order to assist in a translation of the New Testament into Chinese, and remained in China until his return to England in 1856. Medhurst's long career in the Far East made him familiar not only with Malay and Chinese, but also with Japanese, and he is not only one of the most reliable, but also one of the most informed of the Western sinologists. He also went on to publish a Chinese dictionary and conversation book. Item #29374
Price: $750.00
