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CALEB D'ANVERS (Caleb D'Anvers = Nicholas Amhurst, Henry St. John Viscount Bolingbroke, William Pulteney etc) : The Country Journal or the Craftsman. No.79 Saturday January 6 1728

R. Francklin, London, 1727

4pp. In near fine state, light wear to edges, Red halfpenny stamp to margin. An early issue of this important weekly newspaper, Nicholas Amhurst (16 October 1697 – 27 April 1742) was an English poet and political writer. On the 5 December 1726 he issued the first number of The Craftsman, a weekly periodical, which he conducted under the pseudonym of Caleb D'Anvers. The paper was aimed mainly towards the overthrow of Sir Robert Walpole's government; there is some debate about its effects, with most historians agreeing it did little more than preaching to the converted. Nevertheless it reached a circulation of 10,000 copies and was one of the biggest magazines of its time with authors such as Henry Fielding, John Gay and Alexander Pope contributing to it. For this success Amhurst's editorship was not perhaps chiefly responsible. It was founded, and in the beginning financed, by Henry St John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke and William Pulteney, the latter being a frequent and caustic contributor.

First Edition

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