[AUTOGRAPH LETTERS, SIGNED] Circular. An Appeal to the Friends of Education, for the Immigrant, and the Freed-People of the South. [With] two manuscript letters from Zachos to Alpheus Crosby concerning the scheme

Boston: John Wilson, 1864. First Edition. First printing. Octavo (23cm). Pamphlet with cover title; 10pp. With large chips to edges, sewing largely perished and leaves detached, but text unaffacted: Good only. With two manuscript letters, each on a single bifolium (21cm) written on three sides. Adressed from West Newton, [Massachusetts], August 15 and 22, [1864].

Zachos (1820-1898) was an American educator and author who spent much of his career advocating for "the education of women, African Americans, and adults." As an activist, he "taught, trained teachers, wrote textbooks, and developed curriculum" (DAB). In this Circular, he describes his phonic method for teaching reading (he published a Phonic Primer and Reader in the same year), and proposes to publish "the New Testament in the phonic text for the use of night-schools in our large cities, and for the freedmen of the South whose teachers now count by hundreds" (9).

In the letters, Zachos writes to Crosby, a teacher in Salem, to request his participation on the publishing committee for his phonic New Testament. In a letter dated August 15, he describes his scheme and asks approval for having already included Crosby's name as a committee member in the circular, which he encloses. Crosby seems to have responded negatively: Zachos' second letter is stiff and sarcastic, clarifies that the circular had not yet been publicly circulated, and closes with an apology. We have been unable to find any indication that the New Testament was published. (Inventory #: 55880)