First published in 1802 and distributed free to anyone who would take it, Timothy Dexter's A Pickle for the Knowing Ones is American literature's great unpunctuated howl—a merchant prince's riotous complaint against politicians, priests, lawyers, and the "knowing ones" who condescended to him. Here is the complete, unabridged original text, presented with a new introduction and reader's notes that illuminate Dexter's astonishing life, his improbable fortunes, and the strange afterlife of a book that has delighted readers for more than two centuries. Ranting, boasting, prophesying, and misspelling with total conviction, Dexter produced something no one planned and no one could imitate: a genuine original, equal parts folk humor, political screed, and accidental poetry. Whether you come as historian, humorist, or simply the curious, you will find no other voice in early American letters quite like it. Part of The Founding Texts Library.
