Originally published in London and Dublin in 1770, this American edition of the anonymously authored novel Female Friendship or the Innocent Sufferer “has the distinction of being the first book printed east of Portland, Maine” (Bradsher, 244).
The printer, Howard S. Robinson, briefly operated Hallowell’s first newspaper The Eastern Star, which ran for just a year from 1794. Nathaniel Cogswell was a merchant and stationer who enlisted Robinson’s press to supplement his stock of “textiles, hardware, crockery, tea and coffee” with rough and ready American editions of popular English works (Mahoney). These reflected both the appetite for the relatively recent literary innovation of “the novel”, and the nascent American Copyright Act of 1790 which extended for just 14 years after original publication.
Bradsher provides a brief synopsis of the work: “The hero procures a servant in Spain, who, of course, has to tell his story. And a decidedly good one it is–in the picaresque fashion, a witty and straightforward account of the adventures of a rogue. The author must have a remarkably intimate knowledge of the strolling actor; for most of the story, minute and vivid, has to do with this fraternity. Apparently mindful of the frowns of the virtuous, or mayhap pinched by a Puritan conscience, the author ceases after this brilliant episode to be “too interesting,” but perhaps becomes more moral. At any rate the rest of the work is made up of inexpressibly dull and confused twaddle about noble lords and ladies of England and Spain, concerning whom the author was blindingly ignorant” (Bradsher, 244-245).
Scarce in commerce, with only two copies listed in Rare Book Hub: New England Book Auctions, 2006, and CF Libbie, 1918.
Evans, 32122; ESTC, W12118. Bradsher, E. L. “Some Aspects of the Early American Novel” in Texas Review. Vol.3. No.3. Texas, SMU, April, 1918. pp.241-258. Mahoney, G. “A Brief History of Publishing in Hallowell” [accessed 26/9/25]
