He migrated to America in the 1770s and was there during the Revolutionary War and spent the 1790s in France during the era of the French Revolution.
Paine’s fame rests on his widely-read writings. Among his best known are the pamphlet Common Sense and his American Crisis series of essays, written in support of American independence and credited with turning the tide of the Revolutionary War.
In a Printed and Manuscript Americana sale on April 12, Swann Galleries in New York is to offer copy of The American Crisis that lacks the third and final number, but has Parts I and II of 1776-77 in the very rarely seen first state.
Recently discovered in Utah and thought to have been brought to the state by Mormons in the 19th century, it is estimated at $50,000-75,000. In 2014 the New York auction house sold a complete bound set of all three parts for $100,000.
