Jabez L. Van Cleef

Common Sense in Verse: a Poetic Interpretation of the Inflammatory Broadside of Mr. Thomas Paine Jabez L. Van Cleef

Thomas Paine claims the title The Father of the American Revolution because of Common Sense, the pro-independence monograph pamphlet he anonymously published on January 10, 1776; the work quickly spread among the literate, and, in three months, sold 120,000 copies throughout the American colonies (with only two million free inhabitants), making it a best-selling work in eighteenth-century America. It is here given a concise metered form suitable for theatrical adaptation and public performance.