Throughout his life Fox was a tireless traveller and preacher—journeying across Britain, Ireland, much of Europe and America. His Journal--in effect a spiritual autobiography--was first published in 1694 and is a recognized spiritual classic.

This edition, first published in 1952, is designed to replace for the general reader the text prepared by Thomas Ellwood first published in 1694 and which has been carried through in subsequent editions without substantial revisions until the 1892 American edition and the 1902 edition published in England. By reassessing the phrasings in these earlier editions and by realigning them more closely with the original manuscripts it is hoped much of the characteristic immediacy and vigour-of-phrase so typical of Fox has been restored.

The Introduction is by Geoffrey Nuttall and the epilogue by Henry J Cadbury.

Initially dictated to his step son-in-law when they were imprisoned in the mid 1670’s, Fox’s Journal combines burning rage against social injustice with a visionary sense of God ‘rising’ through all creation and a forthright account of his own persecution and suffering. Written in a style that anticipates the works of James Joyce and other modernists (ie-a challenging read) it is--as Smith writes in his Introduction--not only ‘a classic of spiritual and autobiographical writing, but an important literary achievement in its own right.

For this new edition, Nigel Smith has ‘tidied up’ a difficult text to enhance the coherence of the main narrative while retaining the immediacy and excitement of the original. The edition includes four interesting appendices: one being a copy of the Preface William Penn wrote for the first printed edition of the Journal.

Reprinted 1944. This accessioned has been moved to the Madge Seaver version, with her annotations. The original, checked out 6 times, was a gift of C.F. Pentler (San Francisco, CA) in 1945. - added R Willits & J McBride, 2017. The Pentler version had no notes and was withdrawn.

The best edition of George Fox's Journal - A must read for Quakers ( )

A central documentation of George Fox's essential spiritual contributions to the early development of the Society of Friends. It also provides detailed documentation of early Quaker history. ( )