Carey Editions

Family Bibles

The early Philadelphia printer Matthew Carey, an Irish Catholic, published the Douai-Rheims Bible, a well-known English Catholic Bible, in 1790. He made so little money from it, however, that he gave up Bible publishing. One of his booksellers, Parson Mason Locke Weems (the same Parson Weems who devised the story of George Washington and the cherry tree) convinced Carey to try again in 1801—this time using the text of the King James Bible.

With Weems’s eager assistance, Carey had great success with the King James Bible, becoming the primary American Bible publisher of his day. Carey Bibles were sold to consumers via booksellers, but also to schools, Sunday schools, and the Philadelphia Bible Society—the first local American Bible society. Sample copies could be viewed at multiple booksellers in seven cities.

Carey published more than 60 distinct editions, varying in size, bindings, and illustrations, from 1801 to 1824. This one from 1818 includes the Apocrypha, as well as some additional content: maps and engravings, marginal notes, tables, a concordance, and a list of names. Unlike many American King James Bibles, it acknowledges the king on the title page: “By the special command of His Majesty King James I of England.”

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Bible. English. Authorized. Philadelphia: M. Carey & Son, 1818. Library of Congress.

Bible. English. Authorized. Philadelphia: M. Carey & Son, 1818. Library of Congress.


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