Aguilar, Grace (1816-1847) The Jewish Faith: Its Spiritual Consolation, Moral Guidance, and Immortal Hope.
Philadelphia: Published at 1227 Walnut Street, 5624 -- 1864.
First American edition, octavo, 446 pages; containing Leeser's preface, in which he describes his rejection of the immortality of the soul, for which Aguilar argues in this book; bound in later half leather, artlessly repaired with a piece of cloth tape, ex library Jews' College London, with a few rubber stamps, a good candidate for restoration, 7 1/2 x 4 1/2 in.
Aguilar descended from a Sephardic family originally living in Portugal, that fled the Inquisition in the 18th century. She was an accomplished published novelist in her own lifetime, also writing nonfiction and works regarding Judaism that were published after her short life ended at the age of thirty-one. She and Charlotte Montefiore collaborated on The Cheap Jewish Library, Dedicated to the Working Classes, beginning in 1841. The project provided "a context in which female authors corresponded and encouraged one another in publication, [...] thus contributing to the beginnings of a Jewish women's movement in England." (cf. "Montefiore, Charlotte Simcha"; Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press)
