Bay Psalm Book

The Bay Psalm Book, while often excluded from consideration as traditional American literature, is the earliest book ever published and printed in the British colonies in America and the first American book of psalms. Its authors were the American clergymen Richard Mather, Thomas Welde, and John Eliot, and was printed by Stephen Day in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1640. Generally among collectors of American literature books the Bay Psalm Book is considered the most valuable book ever printed in the United States because of its rarity and historical importance. An original copy of the Bay Psalm Book was sold in 1947 for $151,000.