£100
FIRST EDITION, large 8vo, pp. xxxii, 604. Original cloth, printed paper label to spine. Some light soiling, a few bifolia protruding at fore-edge and slightly worn as a result. Cloth toned and scuffed, extremities a bit worn, hinges strained, label defective. Manuscript letter to a Mr McNab dated 1947 thanking him for loan of the book loosely inserted.
The first edition of this infamous compilation of etymological quackery by Charles Mackay (1818-1889), Scottish journalist and author of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. The debunker of famous myths and manias from tulip speculation to alchemy and haunted houses, Mackay here adopts a different form of speculative nonsense, arguing for the Scottish Gaelic origin of much of European vocabulary, in the long tradition of nationalist false etymology. Compiled towards the end of his life, it was the work of more than five years; funding came from Mackay himself and from a modest number of subscribers, some of whom are noted in the list as having died since the commencement of the project.
