Lives of Popes & Popely Letters

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•  Giovanni Ciampini (1633–98) studied law and was subsequently appointed “Magister” at the Apostolic Chancery, thus providing him with a secure job (i.e., sinecure) and allowing him to devote himself to scholarship, as for example, here in his studies of papal biographies and the letters from Pius II to Charles II of France.

Both works are printed in roman type with large woodcut initials featuring cherubs and each has its title-page printed in black and red. The Examen is divided into two parts, each with its own collation and pagination, with the second part being “Sanctae romanae ecclesiae bibliothecariorum catalogus, iuxta chronologicum ordinem. . . .”

Evidence of readership.  In the first part of the Examen an early reader has underlined in sepia ink passages or phrases s/he found significant but added no marginalia.

•  Contemporary vellum. Bookplate removed from front pastedown. Very good copies of both titles.

(Clark, Kenneth). Clark, Kenneth. The other half: A self-portrait. London: John Murray, 1977. Dust jacket in good condition, very slightly crumpled at top of spine.
$17.50

(Clark, Kenneth). Secrest, Meryle. Kenneth Clark: A biography. New York: Fromm International, 1986. Paperback, in fine condition, inscribed by author. With photographs.
$7.50

Life on theAmerican Frontier

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•  First edition of one of the most engaging, opinionated, honest accounts ever written of frontier life: the lightly fictionalized experiences of a New York City–born teacher who moved with her husband to the wilds of Michigan. Kirkland's part-novel, part-autobiography is one of the classic works of pioneer literature.

This copy includes the half-title, but has been well read and shows the signs thereof!

•  BAL 11139; Howes K184; Sabin 37991; Wright, I, 1583.   Contemporary half sheep and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title and author; leather worn/rubbed, especially at head of spine, but text firm in its binding. Front pastedown with Philadelphia bookbinder's ticket of B. Kohler (printed on blue paper). Ex–social club library: 19th-century inked call numerals on endpaper and half-title overlaid with paper labels, title-page pressure-stamped, no other markings. Pages age-toned, with intermittent stains and short edge tears; many leaves with edge repairs done some time ago, often with loss of a few letters, generally not affecting sense. Two final pages of advertisements lacking; one leaf with upper outer portion torn away, costing parts of 12 lines; two leaves with lower portions torn away, with loss of about 14 lines to each. Last leaves with waterstaining to outer portions. Clearly, as noted above, the club library that owned this had avid clientele for it; and that they were as determined to “keep it going” as the repairs show, even after it had been damaged, is interesting!  (26386)

For Books for the BUSTED
            BIBLIOPHILE,  click here.

•  First trade edition, first issue.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good condition, no dust jacket.

(Colville, John). Colville, John. Footprints in time. London: Collins, 1976. Dust jacket worn, with small tears. Previous owner's name in ink on fly-leaf.
$17.50

World War II Memoirs

•  First American trade edition, first issue.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good condition, no dust jacket.

Emily's Brother

(Dillon, Henriette-Lucy, Marquise de La Tour du Pin). Dillon, Henriette-Lucy. Memoirs of Madame de La Tour du Pin. Harcourt, Felice, ed. & tr. New York: McCall, 1971. Previous owner's name in ink on fly-leaf.
$17.50

(Douglas, William O.). Douglas, William O. Go east, young man: The early years. New York: Random House, 1974. Dust jacket in good condition.
$17.50

(Dulles, Eleanor Lansing). Dulles, Eleanor Lansing. Eleanor Lansing Dulles: Chances of a lifetime, a memoir. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1980. Dust jacket shows wear, otherwise good.
$17.50

(Dulles family). Mosley, Leonard. Dulles: a biography of Eleanor, Allen, and John Foster Dulles and their family network. New York: Dial Press, 1978. Dust jacket slightly worn, faded on spine. History Book Club edition. With photographs.
$10.00

(Edward VIII). Donaldson, Frances. Edward VIII. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1974. Dust jacket worn.
$17.50

(Ehrhart, W.D.). Ehrhart, W.D. Vietnam—Perkasie, a combat Marine memoir. Jefferson: McFarland, 1983. Paperback, very good condition.
$50.00

(Eisenhower, Dwight D.). Ferrell, Robert H., ed. The Eisenhower diaries. New York: W.W. Norton, 1981. History Book Club edition. Dust jacket worn.
$10.00

(Elizabeth I). Jenkins, Elizabeth. Elizabeth the Great. New York: Coward-McCann, 1959.
$10.00

SIGNED by the Author — Gerald Ford

•  This copy is SIGNED by President Gerald Ford. From Easton Press's “Library of the Presidents” series, this offering includes the introductory pamphlet by Henry Kissinger.

Stepping into the presidency amidst scandal, war, and a poor economy, Gerald Ford was presented with some very difficult leadership challenges. On the one hand, he was the right man at the right time: His honesty and reassurance restored the confidence in the presidency that been lost during the Watergate scandal, and his negotiation of the Helsinki Agreement contributed to the end of the Cold War. However, Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon eroded much of the trust he had built early in his term. This fateful decision, together with the fall of Saigon and his inability to “whip inflation,” were the main factors that cost him reelection. This memoir speaks to his role in navigating the challenges of his time with the same honesty and straightforwardness that characterized his tenure as president.

•  Full red leather, covers lavishly gilt-stamped with a pattern of elephants, spine with raised bands, gilt title, author's name, and gilt elephants within “compartments.” Endpapers bear a version of the image of the obverse side of the Great Seal of the United States. Silk ribbon placemarker. All edges gilt. Fine condition.  (23605)

With theVery Striking Folding Plate

•  First printed work to give instructions on producing mezzotints, and a most curious account of the development of "sculpture." Evelyn (1620–1706), whose occupation the Dictionary of National Biography cites simply as "virtuoso," published popular works on gardening, politics, and education. His roughly chronological history of illustrative arts, divided primarily by significant figures, is sprinkled with a number of languages (Greek, Hebrew, and German all in their respective typefaces, along with Latin in italics), and also contains a detail from the first mezzotint print ever created, here reproduced as an oversized (and dramatic) folding plate. A "Life" of Evelyn is also supplied.

The work first appeared in 1662, with a second edition published in 1755; the present copy is a reissue of the 1755 with a cancel title-page. A handsome engraved portrait, in which Mr. Evelyn is wearing a most dashing cape, opens the volume.

•  Wing E3513 (first ed.) On Evelyn, see: Dictionary of National Biography, XVIII, 79–83. Contemporary speckled sheep with red gilt-stamped morocco spine label; some little chipping to edges, with joints and spine lightly abraded and cracking (not disastrously). Early inscription reads "Evelyns Sculptura compiled originally the elder Faithorne." Pages unspotted for the most part, and plates in good condition save for slight offsetting to frontispiece. A pleasing book!

Memoirs ofthe Minister of Police

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•  First English edition of the memoirs of France's notorious chief police officer during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Era. As Minister of Police under the Directory, Joseph Fouché (1759 or 1763–1820) was instrumental in reorganizing and centralizing the police system in France and was kept on by Napoleon until he fell out of favor in 1802. However, his network of intelligence gathering proved invaluable to Napoleon, who reinstated him in 1804 (until 1810) and again during the Hundred Days. The authenticity of these memoirs is no longer in doubt and they provide some insight into the political intrigues of the period. It's also an extremely self-serving work — he writes on p. 2 that he never wielded his “mysterious and terrible power” except to “calm the passions, disunite factions, and prevent conspiracies.” Illustrated with a frontispiece portrait of the author. Two volumes bound in one.

•  NSTC 2F12262, 2J13268, & 2B13609.   Green cloth over boards, gilt rules and lettering to spine; cloth worn away at spine extremities and corners and splitting over front joint; preliminary pages (including frontispiece) and pp. 1–2 separated from binding. Private ownership signature at top edge of title-pages; a (different) private owner's pressure- and rubber-stamps; institutional bookplate. Off-setting to six pages from old newspaper articles or leaves laid in; old newspaper article (a review of a much later biography of Fouché) still inserted; Inner margin of pp. 327–8 repaired, not affecting text. Spotting and staining of various sorts and a few dog-ears; not a swell copy but a perfectly serviceable one.  (14222)

“Prince of the Renaissance”

Last 18th-Century American Edition of His WORKS

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•  Early edition of this popular collection of assorted pieces by Franklin, originally published in 1790. Vol. I begins with Franklin's autobiography, with a continuation written by Dr. Stuber, and ends with “Extracts from the last will and testament of Dr. Franklin” on pp. 146–56. Vol. II contains “The Essays.” The engraved frontispiece opposite the title-page of vol. I, a portrait of Franklin in a fur cap, was done by J. Bannerman.

•  Evans 37442; Sabin 25602; ESTC W17376.   Contemporary speckled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; joints fully open and holding by cords, leather peeled up from board edges, gilt dimmed on spine label. Front fly-leaves with faint pencilled and inked inscriptions; back fly-leaves with inked ownership inscriptions, one dated 1801. Pages age-toned, last few waterstained; one leaf torn with loss of several words from one line. A “survivor” copy, priced accordingly.  (22636)

“Dr Franklin” — Illustrated

•  Uncommon first edition of this juvenile version of Franklin's biography, illustrated with 10 woodcuts, six hand-colored. Click the image at right for an enlargement.

•  Shoemaker 40547. Not in Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books.   Publisher's printed yellow paper wrappers, front wrapper lacking, back wrapper stained with edges nicked, spine overstitched at a later date. Moderate spotting and staining to pages; corners bumped. Slightly tattered: first few leaves with short tear from outer margin, not touching text; title-page and subsequent two leaves with short tear from inner margin, extending into text without loss.  (24545)

With A.N.S.

•  First edition. With a signed and handwritten note by the author declining a lunch invitation with the former owner of the book. Fremantle tells her own story and that of her mother, the daughter of Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff, Liberal Member of Parliament under Gladstone.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good condition, in a good dust jacket with some creases and stains.

(George I). Hatton, Ragnhild. George I: Elector and king. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1978. Dust jacket in good condition.
$27.00

(George III). Brooke, John. King George III. London: Constable, 1972. Dust jacket very slightly worn.
$17.50

With aMost Lifelike Portrait

Giacinto di Santa Maria.

•  Fr. Hyacinth of Saint Mary (P. Giacinto di Santa Maria), an Austin friar, here gives the life of a fellow Augustinian, the Genoese Servant of God Charles Hyacinth of St. Mary (Carlo Giacinto di Santa Maria, 1658–1721), for the edification of the faithful and to promote his cause for canonization. That cause enjoyed some limited success, as Charles was elevated from a simple Servant of God and is now considered the Venerable Charles Hyacinth.

The most striking feature of this piece is the first of the two plates, a lifelike portrait of the book’s subject engraved by Heinrich Wehymer after Antonio Davide. The other plate, an unsigned etching, depicts the statue of Our Lady of Consolation in the Augustinian church at Genoa. Also present is an engraved title-page vignette depicting the arms of Pope Benedict XIII, the work’s dedicatee, and there are a few initials and woodcut head- and tailpieces, the tailpiece on the last page being especially large and handsome.

This is apparently the sole edition of this biography, and it is rare: A search of OCLC, RLIN, and NUC Pre-1956 revealed no copies, and the Italian Library Service union catalogue lists only one holding, at the Central Library in Turin.

•  Vellum over paste boards with staining on front cover; pastedowns torn along turn-ins and puter edge of front free endpaper somewhat tattered. Lightly foxed throughout, a few pages more heavily so, with a light waterstain on the bottom edge and/or lower outer corner of most leaves (barely visible, on some). Small hole in outer margin of half-title and hole with tear (from a paper defect) in the margin of pp. 51–52. The second plate with two closed tears into the engraving, without loss. All edges mottled red and blue.

With a Striking PortraitTipped In

•  Scarce early printing (following the also uncommon first edition of 1650, which was issued with another work) of this biography of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, with a nicely accomplished, tipped-in woodcut portrait depicting the saint. Giarda is better remembered for his Bibliothecae Alexandrinae icones symbolicae, a symbol book which went through a number of editions in various languages; of the present saint’s life NUC Pre-1956 gives only one holding, with no additional locations in RLIN or OCLC. Click the righthand image for an enlargement.

Provenance: Front free endpaper with early inked ownership inscription of Marianna Ungarelli; title-page with blurred heraldic pressure-stamp affixed.

•  Later quarter rough paper over marbled paper–covered limp boards; binding rubbed. Pages age-toned, with additional mild foxing.

FIRST EDITION

•  First edition of Gough's account of the origins of the Society of Friends, includingbiographies of a number of Irish Quakers. This three-volume set in matching contemporary bindings is composed of the original three books projected; a fourth volume, published in 1790, is not present here. Each book has an index at the back.

Provenance: Vol. I title-page with inscription dated 1790, reading “Joseph Russells cost 10s a Vollume [sic]”.

•  ESTC T102429.   Contemporary treed calf, spines with gilt-stamped leather title labels; worn but sound. Bookplates of a now-defunct institution on front pastedowns. Some instances of offsetting and foxing, generally no more than moderate, with pages otherwise clean.  (8655)

Second Edition (?) — “New” Fourth Volume Present

Click the images for enlargements.

•  Second edition (?) of Gough's account of the origins of the Society of Friends, biographies of a number of Irish Quakers. This is a four-volume, 1790 set in matching contemporary bindings, composed of the originally projected three books first printed in 1789 along with a fourth, printed for the first time here, which brought the history up to date; each volume has an index at the back.

Provenance:  Each volume's front fly-leaf (facing title-page) with inscription dated 1791, reading “John Humphrey, his book 1791 Price 10s”; each volume's pastedown with small bookplate of Richard McIlvain.

•  ESTC N2800.   Contemporary treed calf, spines with gilt-stamped leather title labels; worn, with all front covers and free endpaper of vol. IV detached. Some instances of light offsetting and foxing, with pages generally clean; some leaves chipped or with marginal tears, one tear causing loss of a few letters from a heading.  (14671)

(Goya, Francisco). Poore, Charles. Goya. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1938. Hinges loose.
$17.50

The General's Wife Was Mighty with Her Pen

•  First edition. Illustrated. With an introduction by Bruce Catton and The First Lady as an Author by Ralph G. Newman.

•  Very good in original dust jacket, slightly worn. Inscription in ink on front free endpaper.

For more of WOMEN's interest,  click here.

(Helms, Cynthia). Helms, Cynthia. An ambassador's wife in Iran. New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1981.
$17.50

•  Dust jacket very slightly worn, otherwise good.

Blair, Blazoned

•  First U.S. edition, following the Edinburgh first of 1807, of this laudatory biography written by a professor at the University of Edinburgh. Dr. Blair, a Scottish preacher, critic, and rhetorician, is best remembered for his sermons (which were praised by Dr. Johnson) and his involvement in the Ossian debate, in which he defended the poems’ authenticity.

Provenance: The Rev. Edwin A. Dalrymple; the Maryland Diocesan Library.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 15224. Contemporary quarter cloth over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; binding moderately darkened and worn, cloth chipped over head of spine, spine showing shadow of a now-absent shelving label. Front pastedown with private collector’s bookplate and with institutional rubber-stamp (as above); title-page additionally with early inked gift inscription in upper margin (this cut into by binder). Some light spotting and age-toning.

The Collector

•  First edition.

•  Publisher's quarter cloth. Very good condition.

White Savage? — Trustworthy Memoirs?

•  First U.K. edition, printed in the same year as the Philadelphia first edition: Controversial captivity narrative, in which Hunter claims to have been captured as a very young child and raised by Kansas Indians, eventually leaving his tribe when he was about 19 years old. The work was first acclaimed, then attacked as a fraud; in recent years, scholars have returned to the debate with somewhat more faith in the tale’s authenticity (see Drinnon’s White Savage: The Case of John Dunn Hunter). The memoirs are followed by an “account of the soil, climate, and vegetable productions of the territory westward of the Mississippi,” including much information about medicine as practiced by the Native Americans of Hunter’s alleged acquaintance. Click the image to the left for an enlargement.

•  Ayer, Narratives of Indian Captivity, 142; Howes H813; Sabin 33921. Contemporary half morocco over cloth, rebacked using original spine with gilt-stamped title and decorations in compartments; leather worn and chipped. Hinges (inside) reinforced. Pages slightly age-toned, with occasional instances of small spots of staining, and a few stray pencil marks.

An Anthology of American Jewish Memoirs

•  First edition. Illustrated. Good reading.

•  Very good condition. In dust jacket, sunned and slightly soiled with a small tear.

One of the Most Literary of AMERICAN Captivity Accounts

•  At the very beginning of the French and Indian War Mrs. Johnson (1730–1810) and her family were taken captive by a party of Abenaki while living on their farm a short distance from the stockade Fort Number Four in the New Hampshire frontier. Pregnant at the time, she gave birth to a daughter the day after her capture; hustled to Canada and held captive for three years, she was separated from her husband, eventually sold to the French, and finally exchanged, being sent to England and then returned to New England where she made a new marriage and a new life.

According to a note printed on the verso of the title-page of the first edition (1796), “part of the text was dictated by Mrs. Johnson, now Mrs. Hastings, herself, and part were taken from minutes made by Mr. Johnson and herself, during their imprisonment. She is much indebted to her fellow prisoner, Mr. Labaree, by whose assistance many incidents are mentioned, which had escaped her attention.”

This is the third edition (second was 1807), “considerably enlarged.” Though the sufferings here were extreme, and their narration presented contemporary readers with frankly, intentionally sensational stuff, Mrs. Johnson's treatment was not exceptionally harsh in the context of the time, place, and situation; it creates an interesting narrative texture that she herself recognizes instances of “savage” kindness.

•  Shaw & Shoemaker 31664; Sabin 36327; Howes J158; Newberry Library, Indian Captivities, 121. This edition not in Field.   Contemporary mottled sheep, joints expertly repaired. Old bookseller's description tipped to front pastedown. A very nice copy.  (26092)

Important (Grey Side) Civil War Journal

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•  First edition: Personal narrative by an articulate, passionate, pro-slavery Northerner who moved south after Lincoln's election and became employed as a clerk to the Confederate Secretary of War in Richmond. Jones's Diary provides detailed observations on both the increasing difficulties of day-to-day life for him and his family, and on the progression of the war at large — recording not only official statements and newspaper reports, but also rumors and the word on the street regarding troop movements and battle successes or failures. The shifting prices of flour, fruits and vegetables, assorted other necessities, and liquor are documented, as well as the values of gold, silver, and Confederate paper money. The entries end with Lincoln's death.

A successful novelist and journalist, Jones was wholeheartedly loyal to the Confederacy, and convinced right up until the end that the North would never conquer a united, determined South; he was also notably anti-Semitic, and there are a number of references here to the Jews being largely responsible for the country's economic woes.

•  Howes J220; Nevins I, 115 & II, 173.   Publisher's brown cloth, spines with gilt-stamped title; sunned and with some discolorations; corners rubbed and spine heads pulled/chipped. Ex–social club library: front pastedown with inked numerals in a 19th-century hand (partially obscured), title-page pressure- and rubber-stamped, a few other pages rubber-stamped. Front free endpaper of vol. I lacking. Pages with light waterstaining to upper inner portions in vol. I One leaf in vol. II with tear extending into text, without loss.  (26297)

First Edition — Uncut Copy

•  First edition: Biography of the Scottish-born Commodore John Paul Jones, perhaps best known for his command of the U.S.S. Bonhomme Richard against the British frigate Serapis when, his ship sinking and in flames, he refused to surrender saying, “I have not yet begun to fight!” This volume, which opens with a steel-engraved portrait of Jones done by J.W. Paradise, is based on “original letters and manuscripts in the possession of Miss Janette Taylor,” Jones's niece. Click the images for enlargements.

This is an uncut copy; uncut, however, though it may have been, this was carefully opened. It was read cover to cover!

•  American Imprints 2078; Howes S91; Sabin 36551.   Publisher's quarter brown cloth and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with printed paper label; binding rubbed and moderately stained, with front hinge (inside) reinforced some time ago. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, frontispiece, title-page, and last page rubber-stamped. Inside the occasional spot or blot; page edges uncut.  (27106)

(Jubelin, Rear Admiral André). Jubelin, Rear Admiral André. The flying sailor. Translated from the French by James Cleugh. New York: The British Book Centre, 1954. 8vo. Illus.
$20.00

•  First American edition. With photographs.

•  Publisher's cloth, no dust jacket. A good-plus copy.

Inscribed

(K'ang-hsi). Spence, Jonathan D. Emperor of China: Self-portrait of K'ang-Hsi. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974. Dust jacket front in good condition, back with slight crumpling, tape repairs, one torn corner. Illustrated.
$17.50

HER! Bookselling Reminiscences

•  First American edition of the first volume of reminiscences of Percy Muir's widow: Much on the bookselling firm of Elkin Mathews and life on home front in WWII England. A good sequel to Muir's Minding My Own Business. In print for $35.00.

•  Fine in original dust jacket.

“Oh, what terrible sights met my view!”

•  Born Frances Wiggins in 1845 at Orilla, Canada, Mrs. Kelly was captured by Ogalala Sioux in 1864 near Little Box Elder Creek in Wyoming en route via the Oregon Trail to Montana. Her captivity lasted five months. The work also includes “a brief account of General Sully's Indian expedition in 1864, bearing upon events occurring in my captivity.” Click the images for enlargements.

A later issue of the first edition, with a different title-page but printed from the same stereotype plates as the first edition, which was published in Cincinnati in 1871.

Provenance:  “Presented by / D. Johnstone to his / son Washington. / Brantford Setp. 12 '77.”

•  Howes K62; Newberry Library, Indian Captivities, 170; Graff 2296.   Publisher's blue cloth, salmon endpapers, title in gilt on spine with top and bottom of spine pulled; blind-stamped image of an Indian within borders on each cover, covers spotted. Interior clean and with remarkably little foxing; indeed, this appears only (and minimally) to the frontispiece.  (25972)

Camelot

•  Second edition.

•  Publisher's cloth. Good-plus condition. Gift inscription on the title-page.

(Kipling, Rudyard). Birkenhead, Frederick Winston Furneaux Smith. Rudyard Kipling. New York: Random House, 1978. Dust jacket somewhat worn, with spine faded. History Book Club edition. With photographs.
$10.00

(Kissinger, Henry A.). Kalb, Marvin and Kalb, Bernard. Kissinger. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1974. Book club Edition.
$12.50

One Year's Worth ofWell-Spent Half Hours

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•  First edition: Engaging periodical compilation of poetry, history, Christian meditations, natural history, art and literary criticism, biography, and fiction, set forth in 52 weekly issues meant to be consumed in half-hour portions, with each weekly number containing seven half-hours. (Indices and quarterly title-pages are bound in here.)

Knight, who was devoted to books and to literature from the time he was a small child, was a much-admired printer and publisher, as well as an author, reformer, and would-be educator: Many of his publishing endeavors were aimed at improving and enlightening the working class.

•  NSTC 2K7731. On Knight, see: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography online. On binding cloth, see: Krupp, Bookcloth, style Wav3.   Publisher's textured brown cloth, covers blind-stamped with muse motif and title, spines with gilt-stamped title and blind-stamped decorations; lightly worn overall with some fading, vol. II spine head with traces of a strip of cloth tape. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, pressure-stamp on title-page, no other markings. Paper slightly embrittled (more so in second volume), with a few short edge tears. Externally ordinary; internally worthwhile.  (26860)

Studying Hawthorne, withCommentary from Melville

•  First edition of this study of Hawthorne and his oeuvre by his son-in-law. An important inclusion here is the printing of the pertinent portion of a letter to Hawthorne from Herman Melville where the author of Moby Dick comments on The House of the Seven Gables. Click the images for enlargements.

Binding: Publisher's green cloth elaborately stamped and decorated in black on front cover and in black and gold on spine. Rear cover modestly embossed in blind. All edges red.

•  Bound as above. Ex–social club library: call number on front fly-leaf, two rubber-stamps on title-page, no other markings. A clean, bright copy.  (26367)

•  First edition of the first biography to reveal the illegitimacy of Lawrence's birth. Early state, for the errata on p. 332 is on paper whiter than that of the page and it measures only 2.4 cm high.

•  O'Brien E192. In dust jacket that is chipped and rubbed.

Over400 SMALL-PRINT Pages

•  Important biography of the soldier and statesman, here in its second edition (the work was formerly known as Sam Houston and His Republic) and greatly expanded. Plates show Houston listening for the signal guns of the Alamo, confronting Santa Anna, and being embraced by his adopted father among the Cherokee, among other heroic scenes; maps include the battleground of San Jacinto and the routes of Santa Anna's and Houston's armies. Click the image for an enlargement.

•  Howes L271. Publisher's blind-stamped cloth, worn and spotted; spine gilt-stamped with title and American eagle, much faded, head pulled. A very few pencil marks and some pages dog-eared; occasional spots of foxing.

For more POST-1820 AMERICANA,  click here.

TVA

AEC

The Daring AviatorTells His Own Story

•  “The famous flier's own story of his life and his transatlantic flight, together with his views on the future of aviation”: First trade edition, blue cloth issue. Illustrated with 23 double-sided plates and a frontispiece, offering 48 images.

Binding:  Publisher's blue cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and airplane vignette, spine with gilt-stamped title; airplane endpapers.

•  Binding slightly shaken, spine gently sunned. Two leaves each with one tear from lower margin, not touching text.  (25989)

(Lippmann, Walter). Steel, Ronald. Walter Lippmann and the American century. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980. Dust jacket in very good condition. History Book Club edition. With photographs.
$10.00

Cortés Malinche & Montezuma

•  Following the achievement of the conquest of Mexico, Cortés did not know how to stop and rest on his laurels: He sought greater fame and honor and to do this embarked on several ill-conceived expeditions that added no luster to his name, and when it became clear that the king was not going to make him a viceroy, the slide down the slope was an unpleasant one. Still striving, he enlisted his chaplain Francisco López de Gómara to write a history of the New World that would include a laudatory biography.

The Historia general de las Indias (first published in 1552) is divided into two parts which stand on their own although clearly written as two parts of a whole. Part I is a history of events concerning the discovery and conquests of the New World exclusive of those involving Cortés. Part II is entirely dedicated to the telling of Cortés's role in the conquest of Mexico and subsequent discoveries.

Click the images for enlargements.

In this Italian translation from the pen of Agostino di Cravaliz, López's “all-Cortés” volume stands as part III of the three-volume Historia, delle nuove Indie Occidentali, with parts I and II being translations of Cieza de Leon's Historia, over Cronica del gran regno del Peru and the previously mentioned part I of Gómara's Historia general de las Indias.

The text here is printed in italic type except the capitals, which are roman. The title-page is printed in roman and italic and has the woodcut printer's device.

•  Alden & Landis 564/25; Sabin 27741; Medina, BHA, 159n; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 2v.   18th-century vellum over paste boards, soiled and a bit rubbed; red leather spine label, with a chip, and an old circular paper shelf-label. Title-page dust-soiled, mounted; small, narrow, oblong portion of blank area of title-page excised and filled in at an early time. Lacks folio 1 and final blank. Top margins closely trimmed, sometimes costing the running heads and folio numbers.  (25767)

(Louis XIV). Mitford, Nancy. The Sun King. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1966.
$17.50

(Maier, William J. Jr.). Maier, William J. Jr. The education of a philanthropist. Charleston, 1982.
$17.50

(Marie Antoinette). Erickson, Carolly. To the scaffold: The life of Marie Antoinette. New York: William Morrow, 1991.
$17.50

(McGhee, George). McGhee, George. Envoy to the Middle World: Adventures in diplomacy. New York: Harper & Row, 1983. Dust jacket faded over spine, slightly worn; inscribed.
$17.50

Mere Angélique & Her Works

Port-Royal

•  History of the influential Cistercian convent at Port Royal and the development of the Jansenist movement nurtured therein, along with a biography of Mere Angélique de Saint-Jean Arnauld d'Andilly, printed in three volumes. Attribution of this work is something of a confusing issue, as several histories were published with virtually identical titles; some of the one-volume 1739 editions can be differentiated by the subtitle Relations de la vie et des vertus de quelques unes des filles de la Mere Angelique, au nombre desquelles ont eté sa mere & ses soeurs qui sont mortes religieuses à Port Royal. Various sources cite the Sieur du Fossé, Jean Louis Barbeau de la Bruyère, Nicolas Fontaine, and others as authors of those works. Click the interior image for an enlargement.

•  Contemporary mottled calf, spines with gilt-stamped leather title-labels, spine compartments with gilt-stamped floral decorations; covers mildly acid-pitted and considerably abraded, with leather lost at head of spine, corners, and joints. Spines with paper shelving labels or remnants thereof; front pastedowns each with bookplate. All edges marbled. Faint pencilled marginalia and bracketing; intermittent offsetting.  (22804)

For more SETS,  click here.

“First First”

•  First edition of the first volume in a series compiled and published by the oldest genealogical society in the United States. Among the biographies present are entries on Harrison Gray Otis, Albert Gallatin, William Ingalls, and Daniel Webster.

•  Publisher’s cloth, spine with printed paper label; spine and back cover scuffed, spine label darkened and chipped. Front pastedown with institutional stamp. Many signatures unopened. Pages slightly age-toned, else clean; paper embrittled, with a few short edge tears.

BUILDER of the FIRSTNew World Utopian Community

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  In the 18th century Mexico saw a birth of great biographical writing focusing on important figures in its history, especially its ecclesiastical history. Vasco de Quiroga (1470–1565) was an imposing and perhaps quixotic figure during the early post-Conquest decades. A learned man, he arrived in Mexico in 1531 as one of the first four judges of the high court (i.e., oidores) and became the first bishop of the far western province of Michoacan. In that “out of the way” region of Mexico he devoted himself to establishing European culture, ensuring fair treatment of the indigenous population, creating towns and cities, and building the first utopian community in the New World.

Not the least of his accomplishments was the creation of two pueblo-hospitals for native Americans, and appended and integral to this biography are his “Reglas, y ordenanzas para el gobierno de los Hospitales de Santa Fé de México, y Michoacàn,” which occupy the final 29 pages.

Historians still consider this to be the definitive biography of Quiroga. The engraved portrait of him, handsome and from the burin of José Morales, adds a face to the words of the biographer and to the account of the deeds of the biographee.

•  Medina, Mexico, 5099; Wellcome, Medical Americana, M.134; Palau 181902; Beristain, III, 2059.   Contemporary limp vellum lacking ties. A very good copy.  (23061)

Inscribed by the Author & Subject

•  First edition. Inscribed by the author and subject. Biography of Harpers Ferry Mayor Bradley Nash, born in 1900.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good condition, no dust jacket.

BROUGHAM on Literature & Science — with MS. Letter

•  Sole edition. The first address extolls the virtues of popular literature as a means of educating the masses, while the second sums up Newton's career and contributions. At the back of the volume is affixed a lengthy newspaper clipping of a letter from Brougham, celebrating the poems of Burns — an unsurprising subject of effusion for this Scottish-born lawyer, journalist, politician, and man of many interests generally. Famous for defending Princess Caroline against the Pains and Penalties Bill, he was also the fashionable eponym of the brougham carriage, a prominent abolitionist, an educational reformer, and the man who made Cannes a popular vacation destination among the English. Click the images for enlargements.

Provenance:  Ownership signature on front free endpaper, “Mr. Justice McDougall, Jamaica.”

Autograph manuscript addition: Tipped onto the title-page is a manuscript letter signed by Brougham, dated 1839. In this informal but warmly written letter apparently addressed to an uncle, he declines an invitation and briefly mentions “the children,” whom he thought were left safe from the measles at Paris; he had one living daughter at the time of this letter's composition, and may be referring to members of his extended family.

•  NSTC 2B51067.   Publisher's limp red cloth in imitation of morocco, yapp edges, covers blind-stamped, spine with gilt-stamped title; extremities rubbed, spine slightly darkened with small paper label, sides with small areas of minor discoloration. All edges stained red. Front free endpaper with early inked inscription and small private pressure-stamp. Pages age-toned; one early inked correction.  (26986)

Die Religion desZoroaster

•  Contains the Persian text of Daulat Shah Alai Samarkandi and the translation of the texts as edited by Justus Olshausen and Julius Mohl. An important text on the lasting influence of Zoroaster and with the life of the great poet Ferdusi (i.e., f Abu-'l Kasim Mansur). Click either image for an enlargement.

•  19th-century German boards covered with black mottled paper; abraded. Paper author/title label on spine, call number label on front cover. Ex-library with bookplate on front pastedown and call number in pencil on verso of title-page. No other markings. (19137)

A Study of Eskimo Life

•  Later edition. First published in 1941. The author, a French aristocrat, recounts his travels in the Arctic wilderness and his life among the Eskimos, still untouched by modern civilization. With drawings and photographs.

•  Paperback. Very good condition.

(Roosevelt, Selwa "Lucky"). Roosevelt, Selwa. Keeper of the gate. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990. Dust jacket in fine condition. With photographs.
$17.50

(Russell, Christabel). Hunter, Eileen. Christabel: the Russell case and after. London: Andre Deutsch, 1973. Dust jacket slightly worn. With photographs.
$17.50

(Sackville-West, Vita). Nicolson, Nigel. Portrait of a marriage: V. Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson. New York: Atheneum, 1973. Dust jacket in good condition; one marginal correction in ink. With photographs.
$17.50

(Santayana, George). Santayana, George. Persons and places: The background of my life. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1944. Small 8vo.
$15.00

•  Later trade edition.

•  Publisher's cloth. Good-plus condition; spine darkened.

Remembrances ofIdyllic Youth

•  Geoffrey Keynes provided the introduction to Siegfried Sassoon's semi-autobiographical novel of his childhood and youth. Keynes here explains Sassoon's efforts and anxieties in making the transition from poet to writer of prose.

Paul Hogarth illustrated the book with black-and-white vignettes which open and close each chapter, and eight full-page color wash drawings. John Lewis designed the book choosing a monotype Walbaum font. The binding is quarter red calf over light-brown buckram sides, gilt-lettered on the spine, and gilt-stamped on the front cover with a design of various fox-hunting implements; tucked away at the lower edge of the back cover is a gilt design of a sly-looking fox in full trot.

This edition is limited to 1600 copies and is signed by the artist on the colophon.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 506.   Binding as above, in original glassine wrapper and slipcase; wrapper with tears at bottom edge. Slipcase with slight bumping at inner front edge. A fine copy, in a near fine slipcase.  (22104)

The Face of Battle

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•  Siegfried Sassoon was one of a celebrated group of soldier-poets who experienced firsthand the ghastly realities of life in the trenches and whose words form an important part of Britain's cultural memory of the Great War. Sassoon's Memoirs covers some of the war's most significant actions, including its single bloodiest day, when 60,000 British soldiers were killed on 1 July 1916, at the Battle of the Somme.

Paul Hogarth's eight full-page watercolors and over a dozen black-and-white vignettes vividly illustrate the bomb-churned landscape of no-man's land, the explosions of rifle and gunfire, and the irony of well-fed generals enjoying life behind the lines. Dennis J. Grastorf designed the book using a 12-point Baskerville font with two points leading space in between the lines. The binding is a natural-tone rough linen, stamped in black on each cover with a bugle design. David Daiches wrote the introduction.

This edition is limited to 2,000 copies and this offering includes the monthly newsletter. The colophon is signed by the artist.

•  Limited Editions Club, Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by The Limited Editions Club, 1929–1985, 519.   Binding as above; slipcase with two short scratches on back. Fine, in a fine slipcase.  (22078)

Presidential Poems from“The Poet & Philosopher”

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•  First edition: Sonnets on the presidents of the United States of America from Washington through Harding, each illustrated with a halftone portrait. This volume was a free giveaway for subscribers to the Poet & Philosopher Magazine, of which Schmidt was at one time the editor, and is now not often seen on the market. An errata slip is tipped in at the front.

Different readers will of course have different favorites; one PRB&Mer's is the poem on Van Buren, beginning, “A panic wild has seized our glorious land!” and moving to its denoument with that president couch[ing his] lance anent / Commercial Ruin, who on the field is slain.”

•  Publisher's blue cloth with all edges rose; gilt-stamped title on front cover and spine, blind-stamped American eagle on front cover; spine very slightly darkened, extremities a bit rubbed, back cover with spots of light discoloration. A solid, clean copy, better-looking than above description might imply.  (26694)

The Reformation Through the Reformers' Letters

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•  Not exactly a BIOGRAPHY but certainly a LIFE:  As the son of the noted Reformation cleric Johann Schweblin and a forceful cleric in his own right, Heinrich gathered and here published the correspondence his father saved from such luminaries as Philipp Melanchthon, Martin Bucer, Wolfgang Fabricius Capito, Caspar Hedio, Michael P. Beuther, and Nicolaus Gerbelius.

The correspondence was printed in roman type with some italic, in this Zweibrücken imprint. Heinrich's life of his father, which occupies the first 16 leaves following the main text, is entirely in italic type.

Provenance:  Ownership inscription on title-page of “D. Fr. Gothold Dürr 1773.”

Rare outside of Germany: We locate only one copy in a U.S. library.

•  VD16 S4757.   Full dark walnut modern calf old style: Spine with raised bands accented with gilt beading and blind rules, the latter extending onto covers to terminate in trefoils; title in gilt in one spine compartment and date in gilt at base of spine. Blind double fillets framing covers and with blind-tooled devices in the corners of the covers; a center panel on each cover with a cross-hatched diamond pattern in blind. 18th- century ownership note and a few other marks to title-page, with extended old note on front free endpaper opposite. Uniform age-toning, and all edges red.  (25822)

An Arctic Explorer

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•  Scoresby-Jackson (bap. 1833, d. 1867) was a physician and geographer and the nephew of William Scoresby, the famed Arctic explorer. DNB online says of him and this work: “He remains best-known for his life of his uncle, William Scoresby, published in 1861. It is a sympathetic account of a man who captured the public imagination for his lonely scientific endeavours and selfless following of his Christian vocation.”

The work is illustrated with a frontispiece portrait, a folding map of the coast of Greenland and part of the Arctic Circle, and five plates in color (notably “ice blue”) of snow flakes, ice floes, an atmospheric phenomenon, and two views of different parts of the Greenland coast.

•  Sabin 35452 & 78184.   Publisher's purple textured cloth, boards blind embossed and front one with a gilt center device; spine sunned; lettered in gilt. Top of spine with small loss of cloth and an excellent repair; one plate with a separated sliver of tissue-guard adhered to it. Ex–social club library: call number on endpaper, very light rubber- and pressure-stamp on title-page, pressure-stamp on another page, light rubber stamp on map, no other markings. A good++ copy.  (26822)

When CEMETERIES Were PARKS with Great Landscape Gardening & Sculpture

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•  Sole edition and now uncommon.  A well-written guide to the cemetery of celebrities and society in mid- to late-19th-century Philadelphia. Who's buried where, who will be entombed where, biographies, the monuments and markers, and even a 53-page list of plot holders. Begins with a history of churchyards and cemeteries in Philadelphia (and the rest of the world) in general.

The text isheavily illustrated with in-text wood engravings and with 16 engraved plates. All illustrations are identified as to artist. The layout of the burial park is detailed in a colored plan at the front of the volume.

Binding:  Publisher's green cloth with textured covers; spine stamped and lettered in gilt. Front cover stamped in gilt with a frame with corner brackets; a very large oval center medallion shows an angel with harp posed between a broken pediment and an hour glass on a closed book, all flanked by weeping willows. Rear cover stamped in blind with same decorative elements. All edges gilt.

•  Sabin 83734.   Binding modestly rubbed, with spine faded and its gilt dimmed; cover gilt in parts “gone to copper” rather attractively. Scattered foxing; several sorts of spotting/staining, darkest stains in upper margins. Overall, a beautiful book in a better than decent copy.  (26863)

(Sitwell, Osbert). Sitwell, Osbert. Left hand, right hand! Boston: Little, Brown, 1944.
$7.50

Writings of anInfluential AMERICAN Jurist

•  First edition: Collected works of Story, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and first Dane Professor of Law at Harvard University. Story was an accomplished legal writer and the youngest member of the Supreme Court ever appointed (he was 32 at the time); he may now be best remembered for his important opinion in the Amistad case. He had a taste for literature as well as for law, and published several poems. The present volume includes literary discourses,biographical sketches, reviews, “juridical discourses and arguments,” and political papers, the latter mostly related to Massachusetts. Click the images for enlargements.

•  Sabin 92310; American Imprints 34408.   Publisher's green pebbled cloth with some discolorations, sunned spine with gilt-stamped title; corners/edges rubbed. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and call-number ticket on front pastedown, title-page pressure-stamped, no other markings. A few early leaves separated; two leaves with outer margins reinforced some time ago.  (26425)

Atomic Energy “Too Cheap to Meter”

[Sweetser, Moses F.]. Dürer. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1880. 12mo. Frontis., 158 p., 2 pl. [also bound in, his] Rembrant. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1880. 12mo. 162 p., 5 pl. [also bound in, his] Van Dyck. Boston: Houghton, Osgood & Co., 1880. 12mo. 157 p., 4 pl.
$25.00

•  In Sweetser's series, Artist-biographies. The biographies were issued separately in 15 volumes, then gathered in 5 volumes with three biographies per volume. This is vol. 4 in the gathered series. It must be noted that none of the volumes in the either series indicates it is part of a "set." That is, each volume truly is (and looks like) a stand-alone.

•  Publisher's deep blue cloth stamped in black and gold. Slight fraying to top and bottom of spine. A very good copy.

(Trefusis, Violet). Jullian, Philippe, & Phillips, John. Violet Trefusis: life and letters. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1976. Ownership signature. With photographs.
$17.50

(Truman, Harry S.). Miller, Merle. Plain speaking: An oral biography of Harry S. Truman. New York: Berkley Publishing, 1974. Dust jacket in fair condition.
$12.00

(Turner). Lindsay, Jack. Turner: The man and his art. London, Toronto, Sydney, New York: Granada Publishing Limited, 1985. 8vo. 179 pp.; illus.
$30.00

•  First edition. With 12 color and 13 black and white illustrations.

•  Paperback. On both covers is a detail of the painting A First Rate Taking in Stores.

Heroic Lima — Heroic Literature

Click either image above for an enlargement.

•  In this epic poem, Valdés (1609–82), a Peruvian-born Jesuit, tells in 572 quatrains of the founding, growth, and grandeur of the city of Lima. The poem is divided in “arguments” and the text is accompanied by extensive sidenotes of a comparative and explanatory nature. Included as part of the forematter is a life of Valdés by Father Francisco del Quadro (leaves a–g4). In addition to his calling to the priesthood, Valdés felt strong attractions to history and poetry; he acted on all three impulsions.

The poem was left unpublished at the time of the author’s death and Francisco Garabito de León Messía saw to its publication.

•  Palau 347681; Medina, BHA, 1806; European Americana 687/140; DeBacker-Sommervogel, VIII, 376–77. Recased in old vellum. A very good copy.

Spanish Southwest  Mexican Art  New World Biography

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•  This is part 4, issued separately, of the author's Teatro mexicano: descripción breve de los sucesos exemplares. The Chronica de la provincia del Santo Evangelio gives detailed descriptions of the Franciscan houses and missions in all of New Spain — especially in Mexico City and Puebla, but also in such far-flung areas as New Mexico and California. Henry Raup Wagner, the dean of bibliographers of the Spanish Southwest, labels the Chronica “a prime authority for the history of New Mexico.” Vetancurt further offers a marvelous section on various apparitions of the Virgin across New Spain, each being given a lengthy paragraph with full details. He ends his volume with a menology of Franciscans and a biographical list of the bishops, writers, and other notables who served or lived in New Spain; a number of these figures were martyrs and their stories are recounted.

It must be pointed out, because it is often forgotten, that art historians will find the Chronica to be rich in architectural detail and brimming over with information about art work in 17th-century New Spain churches and convents. Guillermo Tovar de Teresa, the great historian and bibliographer of colonial-era Mexican books containing information on Mexican art, writes of the Chronica, “Para la historia del arte en México durante el Virreinato es capital; su lectura es imprescindible para los estudiosos de la arquitectura de los siglos XVI y XVII.”

Provenance:  Augustinian monastic library of Morelia (marca de fuego on upper edge of closed book; on verso of title-page in an 18th-century hand: “pertenece al convento de San Augustin de Valladolid”); private use of Fr. Manuel Aigustin Farias (noted on the verso of title-page in an 18th-century hand, prelim. p. 12, first p. 1); later owned by José Martín de Infanzón (prelim. p. 9).

•  Medina, Mexico, 1684; Palau 361217; Sabin 99386; Andrade 1073; Tovar de Teresa, Bibliografía novohispana de arte, 105; Wagner, Spanish Southwest, 68.   Early vellum over boards, rebacked; new endpapers and title-page backed for strength. Stray stains and ink markings variously, the latter in margins; minor worming in some lower margins, with waterstaining notable in the final section and a brown stain perhaps of another nature in upper gutter-ward areas of the same section, sometimes into text. Final six leaves with loss of lower outer corner, including some text; paper replaced and text in excellent facsimile. Volume now housed in a quarter blue morocco tray case with gilt spine.  (26824)

(Walker, John). Walker, John. Self-portrait with donors: Confessions of an art collector. Boston: Little, Brown, 1974. Lightly tattered dust jacket.
$17.50

An Educational Fundraiser inWashington's Memory

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•  First illustrated edition, following the 1833 edition under the title Fac Simile of Washington's Accounts, both renditions having been published “for the benefit of Washington's Manual Labour School and Male Orphan Asylum.” Washington's manuscript expense accounts from 1775 through 1783 are reproduced here in facsimile, along with a life, texts of several speeches, and the “Eulogium on the character of Washington by Major William Jackson.”

In addition to the facsimile pages, there are four plates present, including a frontispiece portrait of Washington that was engraved by P. Haas after Rembrandt Peale; the other plates show Mount Vernon, Washington's tomb, and a sheet of colonial paper money.

Tipped in at the front here is asmall separate flyer that is both prospectus to the volume and an appeal to the public regarding the benefits of the proposed Manual Labour School and Male Orphan Asylum. This was written by Peter Wallace Gallaudet, who had served for a time as Washington's assistant and became the founder and moving spirit of the institution's society.

Binding:  Publisher's ribbon-embossed brown cloth of Krupp's style Ft9, both covers with decorative gilt-stamped title in a foliate medallion. Very representative of a type of binding now rapidly disappearing.

•  Sabin 101724; not in Amer. Imprints.   Binding as above, cloth with lighter/darker areas and splitting over joints; corners rubbed and one bumped/creased with damage to cloth; spine sunned and with remnants of an old label at head. Ex–social club library with 19th-century bookplate: Inked call number on pastedown, free endpaper, and small cover sticker; rubber-stamps on endpaper, fly-leaf, frontispiece, title-page, and plates. Last few leaves waterstained along upper inner portions. “Ex-library” for sure, but in fact a bit interesting for that — and not as distressed a thing in hand as full recital of its faults makes it sound.  (26328)

Washington in aBeautiful Striped Binding
      (He'd have Wanted the Cloth for a Waistcoat)

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•  Bancroft's biography of Washington, originally published in 1807, appears here as two volumes in one in an attractive gift binding. Each volume is illustrated with two wood-engraved plates; the second volume has a separate title-page.

Binding:  Publisher's green-blue vertically striped ribbed cloth (predominantly seen in the 1840s, never common). Covers with gilt-stamped foliate and drawer pull frame, spine gilt extra with American eagle and portrait of Washington. All edges gilt.

•  For early eds.: Sabin 3097; Howes B86. On striped bindings, see: Krupp, Making a Case for Cloth, p. [11].   Binding as above, very lightly rubbed, most notably at corners. Front free endpaper with old, closed cuts/slashes and early inked presentation inscription. Plates browned; some signatures foxed, most pages clean. A lovely copy.  (26759)

Parson Weems's Powerful! Myths

•  Later edition of the much-reprinted hagiography that includes the famous cherry tree story. Illustrated with six wood-engraved plates, including a frontispiece portrait of Washington; publisher's advertisements in the back.

•  Publisher's brown cloth, covers blind-embossed, and spine with gilt decoration, lettering, and cameo portrait; portions of binding discolored, gilt-lettered author's name on spine rubbed, spine slightly cocked, corners bumped. Pages with light age-toning and offsetting; intermittent staining/spotting, and a few old ink stains. Small chip at bottom margin of pp. 155/156. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, pressure-stamp on title-page, ink numeral in lower margin of p. [5], charge pocket on rear free endpaper, no other markings. Small booksellers' label of “Leary & Getz” inside front cover.  (26332)

•  First edition. A compilation of letters by the wife of the Secretary of Defense under Ronald Reagan, Casper Weinberger.

•  Paperback (no hardcover edition issued). Very good condition.

(Wellington). Longford, Elizabeth. Wellington: Pillar of state. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
$17.50

TheLatest Agricultural Innovations, with COLOR-PRINTED Plates

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•  First edition: “Agricultural mechanics, agricultural chemistry, agricultural and horticultural botany, agricultural and economic geology, agricultural zoology, meteorology, &c.” The volume opens with a portrait and biography ofAndrew J. Downing, “the most eminent of American horticulturists and professors of Rural Architecture” (p. 5). Much interesting material is present here on the cultivation of various fruits and vegetables, the introduction of exotic domesticated animals (Chinese yaks, cashmere goats, camels) into the United States and Europe, statistics of American production, and various mechanical and technical innovations.

Illustrated with four color plates done by Max and Louis N. Rosenthal of the famed Philadelphia firm Rosenthal's,  producers of some of the earliest chromolithographs in the U.S.  The frontispiece here, after a drawing by B.L.C. Wailes, depicts a blossoming cotton plant, while the three other chromolithographed plates show a more mature example, the cotton caterpillar, and rot in cotton. The volume is additionally illustrated with a number of in-text steel and wood engravings.

•  Allibone 2641. Not in Reese, Stamped with a National Character.   Publisher's blind-stamped green cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine sunned, chipped at head, and with small darkened area. Ex–social club library: Call number on front pastedown, front free endpaper lacking, title-page and several others (not plates) with old, round, light rubber-stamp. Pages age-toned, otherwise clean.  (26420)

A Young Puritan’s Example

•  Originally printed in 1749, this piece was excerpted and edited by James Wheatley from James Janeway’s Invisibles, realities, demonstrated in the holy life and triumphant death of Mr. John Janeway. John Janeway was a Puritan scholar who died at an early age; his brother’s account of his religious experiences was considered exemplary reading for quite some time, and went through numerous editions.

The title-page proclaims “This book is not to be sold, but given away.”

•  ESTC N9602. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, spine with printed paper label. Title-page with repairs to margins and one page crease; title-page verso rubber-stamped by a now-defunct institution. First few leaves with inner margins repaired. Pages untrimmed, and gently age-toned.

A Great“Gilded Age” Architect

•  First trade edition, first issue. Biography of late 19th century architect Stanford White whose works, from the neoclassical Knickerbocker Trust Company and the Pantheon-inspired Gould Library to Madison Square Garden, transformed the landscape of the northeastern United States.

•  Publisher's cloth. Very good condition, in a very good dust jacket.

•  Book club edition. Black and white photos. A "Mid-American" life, still an interesting one.

•  Publisher's cloth in original dust jacket; soiled and worn with tears. Shaken.

POE's Onetime Near-Fiancée Rebuts Griswold's
 “Perverted Facts & Baseless Assumptions”

Click the images for enlargements.

•  First edition of this early, famed defense of Edgar Allan Poe against Griswold and other critics, written by a poet who had very nearly married Poe.

•  BAL, VII, p. 146.   Publisher's terra-cotta ribbed cloth, covers framed and modestly decorated in blind, front cover and spine with gilt-stamped title; binding cocked, a little rubbed, and spine gilt slightly darkened. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate and call number on endpapers, title-page and two others rubber-stamped, back endpaper with pocket. No other markings. Pages age-toned and slightly embrittled. A good copy, with list of Rudd & Carleton's “NEW BOOKS” at the end.  (26513)

(Wilder, Thornton). Harrison, Gilbert A. The enthusiast: A life of Thornton Wilder. New Haven: Ticknor and Fields, 1983. Dust jacket very slightly worn.
$17.50

Proclaiming America's“Truly Illustrious Characters”

•  First edition: An early national biographical dictionary, starting with Columbus and ranging through such illustrious names as Penn, Rittenhouse, Washington, and Jefferson.

Title-page and first introduction page inscribed "John Culberts Book."

•  Sabin 105167; Shaw & Shoemaker 50156. Contemporary treed sheep, front cover all but off, edges worn and back joint deeply abraded. Pages browned. Title-page faintly stamped by a now-defunct institution; front pastedown with old-fashioned bookplates.

(Wright, Peter). Wright, Peter. Spycatcher: The candid autobiography of a senior intelligence officer. New York: Viking, 1987. Dust jacket slightly worn around corners. History Book Club edition. With photographs.
$10.00

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