The Battle of the Books
Jonathan Swift worked for William Temple during the time of the controversy, and Swift's "A Tale of a Tub" (1703/1705) takes part in the debate. From its first publication, Swift added a short satire entitled "The Battle of the Books" to the "Tale of a Tub." In this piece, there is an epic battle fought in a library when various books come alive and attempt to settle the arguments between moderns and ancients. In Swift's satire, he skilfully manages to avoid saying which way victory fell. He portrays the manuscript as having been damaged in places, thus leaving the end of the battle up to the reader.
Zephaniah Swift
In 1795, Swift wrote "A System of the Law of the State of Connecticut", the first legal treatise published in America. In 1796, having served on a Congressional committee, he compiled and edited the first official version of "The Laws of the United States of America." The three volume collection was published by authority of Congress and contained an extensive index. For over a hundred years, Swift's work on this publication was wrongly credited to the publisher, Richard Folwell, until historian Clarence E. Carter established that Zephania Swift deserved credit for the project.