My photos here are poor, but this is great early one, 1831-32, the work of a young Peter Crouse (born 1816) of Oppenheim, Montgomery County, NY. I will never tire of these, the earlier the better, for the handwriting for sure, but even more than that for the resonance of the words and sentences written over and over, and for all of the quirks, too, such as words that didn't quite fit on the page and were snuck in as tails at the end.  Many pages here that feel as if written nearly 200 years ago to speak to us now, reminders of the values upon which this country was founded or pointed jabs at present leaders, all veiled as penmanship exercises! "American heroes." "People pay a heavy tax."  "Beauty entices some but money all men." "Exhort one another to the practice of virtue." And, perhaps my favorite, "There is a banquet spread in which poison is in every dish." But also, "The cheerful man hears the lark in the morning." And on the back cover is snuck in a note, which feels a bit like a secret: "I walked out in a moon shine night." Lovely.

8 1/8" x 6 1/2". 42 pages (21 leafs), completely full. Most but not all pages documented (a few favorites first, then mostly in order), completely readable throughout. Ink stronger and richer in hand, on strong wove paper, a great and singular example.