The Algerine Spy in Pennsylvania - photo 1
The Algerine Spy in Pennsylvania - photo 2

The Algerine Spy in Pennsylvania

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$ 16 380
Auction dateClassic
16.06.2023 10:00UTC -04:00
Auctioneer
CHRISTIE'S
Event location
USA, New York
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ID 967364
Lot 170 | The Algerine Spy in Pennsylvania
[MARKOE, Peter (c.1752-1792).] The Algerine Spy in Pennsylvania: or, Letters written by a Native of Algiers on the Affairs of the United States in America. Philadelphia: Prichard & Hall, 1787.

Attractive first edition of the first American spy novel and indeed one of America's earliest novels overall—very rare at auction. The last copy recorded by RBH was the Hogan copy in 1945. While Power of Sympathy was long considered the first American novel, four works of varying novelistic qualities precede it, including the present text which is the most traditionally narrative of the group. It tells the story of a North African secret agent on a mission in America who ultimately converts to Christianity and embraces the American agrarian ideal, events which play out through reports written to his contact back in Algiers.

Mehemet's charge is to assess the strength of the new nation and the possibilities for converting its people to Islam. It was printed only a year after Jefferson's envoy to Algeria and Morocco, resulting in the latter signing a treaty of Peace and Friendship with the United States, and is a fascinating witness to international religious and political anxieties of the period—as well as an allegory of the weaknesses of the fledgling country under the Articles of Confederation. One of Mehemet's grand plans is to turn Rhode Island—identified as a weak spot due to their refusal to cede the right to tax the federal government—into "Ottoman Malta on the coast of America." They would pay for protection by the Ottomans by sending "a certain number of virgins" to the sultan. This directly echoes John Jay's warning in the same year that if Americans failed to ratify the new Constitution, they would be at risk of enslavement by Algerian corsairs. In the end, Mehemet’s cover is blown at the very moment of the ratification of the Constitution—and he chooses to embrace life in the United States. Wright 1813; Sabin 763; Evans 20481. See also Timothy Marr, The Cultural Roots of American Islamicism (2006).

12mo (163 x 97mm). Half title (corner torn away from p.55-56 with loss of a few words). Modern calf to style by Philip Dusel, red morocco spine label. Provenance: Young Men's Association of Geneva, NY (printed library label and inscriptions to flyleaf).
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
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16.06.2023
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