The Plowshare, and the American Reporter, together with The Cosmopolitan, 1852 and 1853. by Parkhurst, Henry M - 1853

Washington, D.C.: self, 1853. First Edition . Hardcover. Good. 1st in book form, 12mo, a good copy in original blue cloth. Spine very faded, chipped at top; binding is holding well. There is a waterstain on the lower third of many pages throughout the book. Begins with Year 4, #11 of the Ploughshare (changes to 'Plowshare' with Year 5 #28), running to Year 5 #34, Jan. 1852 to Dec. 1853. It is written entirely in phonetically spelled English, using many odd characters. The content ranges from political essays to chess. He also has articles on an entirely new alphabet he developed, the Cosmophonetic alphabet. Then there are 2 issues of The Cosmopolitan, which are printed entirely in that alphabet. Follows issues 16-30 of The American Reporter, again printed phonetically; it includes reports from Congress and discussions of the development of his phonetics. The methods and characters he used do look very similar to the phonetic pronunciation guides now used in dictionaries, and he may have been influential in this development.