Rare Book Monthly

Articles - October - 2003 Issue

This Month&#146;s New Catalogues:<br>Travels, Americana, and More

Almagre Books’ &#34;Americana&#34; catalogue

Almagre Books’ &#34;Americana&#34; catalogue


Item 46 is Edward Beecher’s Narrative of Riots at Alton: In Connection with the Death of Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy. Beecher was Harriet Beecher Stowe’s brother and an ardent abolitionist. So was Lovejoy, the subject of this book. He briefly published an anti-slavery pro-free speech newspaper in St. Louis, until it was destroyed by a mob. Undaunted, Lovejoy moved across the river to Alton, Illinois, where he had three more presses destroyed by pro-slavery mobs in the Land of Lincoln. Finally, as he and several other defenders tried to hold off a mob seeking to burn the press down, he was killed by gunfire at the age of 34. He was buried in an unmarked grave, but a large monument in the Alton Cemetery now marks this worthy man’s final resting place. $375.

For collectors of western Americana, there’s item 146, The Life and times of Christopher Carson… We know Christopher better as “Kit” today. This 1861 biography was published during his lifetime. $200. Or how about a printing of an 1897 letter from Elizabeth B. Custer, better known as Mrs. George Custer, defending her husband against charges he disobeyed orders at Little Big Horn? Item 204. $150.

Item 321 is Facts and Faces in the Kalloch Trial. Rev. Isaac Kalloch was a powerful orator with a checkered life. Born in 1831, he first served as a pastor in Maine. He later moved to Boston, where his sermons drew standing room only crowds. However, he was supposedly caught in an act of adultery with, sad to say, the wife of a bookseller. Kalloch moved on to Kansas where he founded Ottawa University, and from there to San Francisco. Again he preached to large crowds, and through a classic political flip-flop, secured the Workingmen’s Party nomination for mayor in 1879. Once sympathetic to the Chinese, Kalloch flipped to join the forces trying to push them out. Shortly before the election, he was shot by a newspaperman in an unsuccessful assassination attempt. Perhaps because of sympathy, he was elected and served one term. Two years after leaving office, Kalloch again moved, this time to Washington State, where he died in 1887. $600.

Item 380 describes how virtually all diseases can now be cured. You didn’t know? J.C. Boyd’s 1879 “The Blood is the Life!” An Astonishing Discovery…Nearly All Diseases Effectually Cured by Boyd’s Miniature Galvanic Battery! Obviously Boyd didn’t consider lying a disease, as it didn’t cure him of that. $300.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Bonhams, Dec. 18: A Very Fine Composite Atlas Magnificently Illuminated and Heightened with Gold in a Fine Contemporary Hand Throughout. $300,000 - $500,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Saint-Exupéry's Revised Ending for Wind, Sand and Stars. $40,000 - $60,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Edith Wharton's Gold Medal from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, 1924. $20,000 - $30,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Salinger on the Glass Family and on Detachment. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Fanny Burney's Groundbreaking First Novel. Evelina, Or a Young Lady's Entrance into the World. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Kafka's Earliest Extant Piece of Writing. Autograph Note Signed ("Franz Kafka"). $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Wagner Signed "Ride of the Valkries." $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Dickens on the Death of Little Nell. $5,000 - $8,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Sylvia Plath's Copy of Joy of Cooking. $4,000 - $6,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Walt Whitman and Friends: Whitman to James Russell Lowell. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 18: Walt Whitman and Friends: The Genesis of his Lincoln Lectures. $6,000 - $9,000
  • High Bids Win
    Bookbinding & Letterpress & Antiques Auction
    Dec. 4 – 19, 2024
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 67. Book Press
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 68. J. W. Daughaday Printing Press
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 69. C. & P. Pilot Press
    High Bids Win
    Bookbinding & Letterpress & Antiques Auction
    Dec. 4 – 19, 2024
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 73. Vandercook Cylinder Proof Press
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 76. Showcard Proof Press
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 80. C. & P. Printing Press
    High Bids Win
    Bookbinding & Letterpress & Antiques Auction
    Dec. 4 – 19, 2024
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 81. C. & P. Printing Press
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 82. Kelsey Star Printing Press
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 83. Pilot Press
    High Bids Win
    Bookbinding & Letterpress & Antiques Auction
    Dec. 4 – 19, 2024
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Lot 212. Kelsey Letterpress
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Wood & Metal Type. Many fonts and faces.
    High Bids Win, Dec. 4 – 19:
    Print Shop Miscellany including type, tools, and equipment.
  • Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: A Rare Complete Run of the Cuala Press Broadsides. €5,500 to €7,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Rare First Edition of a Classic Work. [Stafford (Thos.)] Pacata Hibernia, Ireland Appeased and Reduced…, 1633. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Yeats (W.B.) The Poems of W.B. Yeats, 2 vols. Lond. (MacMillan & Co.) 1949. Signed by author, limited edition. €1,250 to €1,750.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Fishing: Literal Translation into English of the Earliest Known Book on Fowling and Fishing, Written originally in Flemish and Printed at Antwerp in 1492. London (Chiswick Press) 1872. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Fishing: Blacker's - Art of Fly Making, etc., Comprising Angling & Dying of Colours..., Rewritten & Revised. Lond. 1855. €250 to €350.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Joyce (James). Finnegans Wake,, London (Faber & Faber Ltd.) 1939, Lim. Edn. No. 269 (425) copies, Signed by the Author (in green pen). €3,000 to €4,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Synge (J.M.) & Yeats (Jack B.) illus. The Aran Islands,, D. (Maunsel & Co. Ltd.) 1907, Signed Limited Edn. €4,000 to €5,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Meyer (Dr. A.B.) Unser Auer -, Rackel-Und Birkwild und Seine Abarten, Wien (Verlag Von Adolph W. Kunast) 1887. €2,500 to €3,500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Carve (Thomas). Itinerarium R.D. Thomas Carve Tripperariensis, Sacellani Maioris in Fortisima iuxta…,, Moguntia (Mainz) impriemebat Nicolaus Heyll, 1639. €1,500 to €2,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Grose (Francis). The Antiquities of Ireland, 2 vols. folio London (for S. Hooper) 1791. First Edition. €3,000 to €5,000.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Heaney (Seamus) & Le Brocquy (Louis) artist. Ugolino, D. (Dolmen Press) 1979, Signed Limited Edition No. 87 (125) Copies. €3,500 to €4,500.
    Fonsie Mealy’s, Dec. 11-12: Heaney (Seamus). Eleven Poems, Belfast (Festival publications - Queens University) [1965], First Edn., (First Issue) Signed. €2,500 to €3,500.
  • Bonhams, Dec. 17: Kelmscott Chaucer: The Finest Book Since the Gutenberg Bible. $60,000 - $90,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Inscribed by William Morris to Edward Burne-Jones. Poems Chosen out of the Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Morris's Original Manuscript Title-Page Design for Rosetti. Ballads and Narrative Poems. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Printed on Vellum: The Founding of the Kelmscott Press. $30,000 - $50,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Inscribed by William Morris to Edward Burne-Jones. Voragine, Jacobus De. The Golden Legend. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Inscribed by William Morris to Edward Burne-Jones. Lull, Ramon. The Order of Chivalry. $10,000 - $15,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Inscribed by William Morris to Swinburne. Morris, William, translator. Tale of King Florus and the Fair Jehane. $4,000 - $6,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Printed on Vellum: One of Only 15 Copies. Morris, William, translator. Of the Friendship of Amis and Amile. $15,000 - $25,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: William Morris Association Copy in Fine Binding. Morris, William. Child Christopher and Goldilind at the Fair. $8,000 - $12,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Morris, William. 1834-1896. The Earthly Paradise. $6,000 - $9,000
    Bonhams, Dec. 17: Nuremberg Chronicle. Schedel, Hartmann. 1440-1514. $30,000 - $50,000
  • Sotheby's
    Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
    Discover Upcoming Auctions
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 9: Coronelli, Vincenzo Maria. "Epitome Cosmografica." With the 6 circular celestial and terrestrial charts. 7,000 – 10,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 9: Hurley, Frank. Collection of 69 photographs taken during Ernest Shackleton's Endurance Expedition. 80,000 – 120,000 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 10: Sendak, Maurice. Original artwork for the inaugural "New York is Book Country" poster, 1979. 300,000 – 600,00 USD
    Sotheby’s, Dec. 10: [Brontë, Emily, and Ann Brontë] — Ellis Bell and Acton Bell. An outstanding survival of the sisters' debut novels Estimate. 90,000 - 130,000 USD

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