Rare Book Monthly

Articles - June - 2004 Issue

Introduction to <i>The Old Booksellers of New York and other papers</i>

The Old Booksellers of New York and other Papers by William Loring Andrews.  1895

The Old Booksellers of New York and other Papers by William Loring Andrews. 1895


The Old Booksellers of New York and other papers
By William Loring Andrews

Introduced by Bruce McKinney

The full text of this book can be reached through this link.

This book, published in 1895, contains three primary essays:
The Old Booksellers of New York;
William Gowans
Joseph Sabin
John Bradburn and others
The First Illustrated Magazine Published in New York
The Early American Almanac

If you enjoy the minutia of book selling you’ll enjoy reading The Old Booksellers of New York and Other Papers, a brief (15,000 words or about one hour to read) account of some of the most important New York booksellers of the 19th century. It is written by William Loring Andrews and was published in 1895 when it was still possible to have known many of these men, and it was only men, first hand. The dealers he writes about are William Gowans, Joseph Sabin, John Bradburn and a small group of lesser lights whose memories yet linger in the communal recollections of the bookselling and collecting field and are still occasionally recognized in the arcane markings they sometimes penciled in books they offered. For those who collect not only books, but the collecting history of their books, such information is useful if hardly conclusive. It is one of the most interesting aspects of dealing and collecting.

Pride of place in the order of presentation goes to William Gowans, who, in 1828, at the age of 25 made his way to New York City from Indiana after a brief career as a long boatman on the Mississippi. He was a Lincoln contemporary and engaged in the same occupation on the same river and though they never met, their boats would have crossed paths. After first engaging in enterprises that now look to have been the ideal boot camp for the soon to emerge bookseller he spent his first New York year as a “gardener, stevedore, stone-cutter, news-vender and super in the old Bowery Theatre.” In 1829 for the first time he shows up in a New York City directory as a dealer and from then on, for the balance of his life he remains a bookseller except for a few years in the early 1840s when he conducted book auctions at 169 Broadway. His success is measured three ways; by his progressively improving address, by the increasing scale of his inventory and by the fame of his collecting clientele. On all accounts Mr. Andrews accords him high marks. “A full list of Mr. Gowan’s customer’s and casual visitors would go far toward supplying the material for a social register and a roll-call of the men of letters of the day.” Among them was Millard Fillmore who had a mania for signing his name and who may have become President only for the purpose of increasing the value of his signature. George Brinley was a client as were John Carter Brown, George Bancroft, Washington Irving and Benson J. Lossing to name only a few. Mr. Gowans also had the distinction of sharing a house with Edgar Allen Poe and left the report that Mr. Poe’s drinking was, like Mark Twain’s death, greatly exaggerated.

Mr. Gowans left to posterity numerous books in which he placed his penciled pricing code on page 25 as well as 28 catalogues, the first issued in 1842 and the last in 1870. Mr. Andrews damns the early catalogues by mentioning “the later ones were carefully compiled and neatly printed” while tiptoeing past the early efforts. Mr. Gowans went to his next, if not higher, calling on January 30, 1871.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
    Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
    Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
    Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
  • Rare Book Hub is now mobile-friendly!
  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800

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