spiritual letter. In modern editions, the sermon is appended to Rogers' own book. The author The Character and Death is a wholly Methodist work; the author(s), printer, subject matter, and rhetorical context are all products of early Wesleyan Methodism. Thomas Coke, the author, was born in Wales in 1747 and died sixty-seven years later on a voyage to India where he had hoped to fund his own Methodist missions. Before Coke met John Wesley and joined the Methodists in 1777, he had been an Anglican. Coke subsequently became the first bishop of the Methodist Church and the founder of its missions. Coke visited the Americas nine times and wrote many accounts about his trips. Coke’s most memorable works include his Commentary on the Old and New Testaments, A History of the West Indies, and the Life of John Wesley; he also published several volumes of his own sermons. The Character and Death is the only one of Coke’s books published by the Wesleyan Conference Office. His other books were either published by general printers or other Methodist printers. However, all foreign editions of The Character and Death were published by Methodist printers: for example, in 1813 an edition of the book was published in New York by the Methodist Connection in the United States. The Character and Death appears only to have been printed in small format. The publisher Although the name of the printer which appeared on the first and last pages of the book is the “Conference Office,” the full title of the printer was the “Wesleyan Conference Office.” The Wesleyan Conference office published books on John Wesley, Methodism, missionary voyages, and hymns. OCLC/WorldCat lists nine hundred and ten entries under “Printer: Wesleyan Conference Office” but many of these entries are editions of the same book. Their first book, printed in 1745, was an edition of John Wesley's An Earnest Appeal to Men of Reason. The book billed itself as a “defense of Methodism, describing the evils of the times in society and the church.” The Wesleyan Conference office did not print books larger than the octavo format; they were a specialized printer interested in printing small, cheap books on Methodism for sale in Methodist churches and bookstores. Despite the fact that these books were certainly brought on missions to help convert natives, the Wesleyan Conference office published exclusively in English. George Whitfield, listed as the book's agent,