Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - April - 2011 Issue

Inexpensive Americana from David M. Lesser Antiquarian Books

Inexpensive Americana from David Lesser.

Inexpensive Americana from David Lesser.

David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books has issued Part 16 of their Inexpensive Americana series. The listings of inexpensive Americana are very similar to the regular catalogues of rare Americana, with one very obvious difference. Nothing is priced over $250. Many are only in double digits, as low as $35. Material is mostly from the 18th and 19th centuries, pamphlets and other less than book length printings, obscure and hard to find if not downright rare, and pertaining to what were the pressing issues of the day. They can range from politics to theology, crime, medicine, education, law and the ever-present personal disputes. In those days, personal quarrels were frequently argued through public pamphlet wars, rather than on cable television. Fortunately (or unfortunately), it allows us to observe people in all of their pettiness even centuries later. The way we carry on our arguments changes; that we argue does not. Now we take a glimpse at some of these American pamphlets that are priced within a workingman's budget.

 

We will start with an atypical item from this catalogue as it is really not a piece of Americana, though it is most fascinating. About the only tie to America is that it is a British pamphlet from 1760, and after all, America was part of England in 1760. It is The Trial of Lawrence Earl Ferrers, for the Murder of John Johnson…in Full Parliament…April 1760. Lawrence (or Laurence, there seems some confusion) Shirley succeeded his insane uncle as the Fourth Earl of Ferrers in 1745. As such, it entitled him to a seat in the House of Lords. Shirley was not a particularly nice man. In his youth he had lived a life of debauchery in Paris. Elevation to lordship didn't improve his behavior much. He married an apparently lovely young woman in 1752, but by 1758, she obtained a separation from him for cruelty. That would have been very unusual and difficult for a woman to obtain in 1758, particularly with a right to financial payments from his lordship. Ferrers must have been a truly miserable human being. Drinking, violent outbursts, womanizing, and having a mistress with illegitimate children were among his faults. His murder victim, Mr. Johnson, was a family steward, a collector of rents who was obliged to turn over a portion of the income to Ferrers' separated wife. That did not sit well with Lord Ferrers, who took his anger out on Johnson with a gun. The Lord was convicted of murder, for which he was hanged like a common criminal. He was the last member of the House of Lords to be hanged. Item 96. Priced at $250.

 

Perhaps the most memorable quote about George Washington came from Light Horse Harry Lee's eulogy:  "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen." John Brooks had a similar description of Washington in his An Eulogy, on General Washington, published in 1800. Nevertheless, Brooks quote is little remembered:  "Great in war, great in peace, and great in the moment of his dissolution." First or great can be more or less interchangeable, but the last clause about being first/great in the hearts of your countrymen sounds more poetic than being great at the moment you dropped dead. Fortunately, Brooks tells us much more about the life of America's Revolutionary War hero and first President. Item 31. $175.

Rare Book Monthly

  • Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025 Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025
    Forum Auctions
    Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper
    17th July 2025
    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’sGeek Week2-17 July | New York Sotheby’sGeek Week2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Buzz Aldrin's FLOWN Apollo 11 Crew-Signed NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Cover. $15,000 to $20,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Lunar Surface Flown Mission Emblem Presented to Tom Stafford by John Young. $8,000 to $12,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Albert Einstein. Typed Letter Signed ("A. Einstein."), to Ann Morrisett, Affirming a Pacifist's Right to Self-Defense, March 21, 1952. $10,000 to $15,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Geek Week
    2-17 July | New York
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia, 1949. $30,000 to $50,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 17: Steve Jobs Apple Computer Business Card, c. 1977. $5,000 to $8,000.
    Sotheby’s, July 15: Extensive Chronology of Spacecraft From Apollo to Skylab, Signed by a Member of Every Crewed Apollo Flight and the Commanders of Each Skylab Mission. $5,000 to $8,000.
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  • DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025 DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025
    DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    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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