Letters, Travels, Politics and More <br>from Michael Brown Rare Books
Catalog 37 from Michael Brown Rare Books
By Michael Stillman
Michael Brown Rare Books' latest catalogue of Americana, number 37 to be precise, is filled with the unusual, uncommon, and unique. "Unique" is no exaggeration as there are many manuscript letters and diaries which give us a picture of life in America in the 19th century. In the days before cell phones, email, and instant messaging, people had to place their messages on paper, which made it possible that their thoughts would survive. I don't know whether these letter writers would have wished for this, but we are richer for it, as it affords us an opportunity to better see those times through the eyes of people who actually lived during them.
Item 85 is a fascinating collection of letters received by Beulah Johnson of Columbus, Wisconsin. Miss Johnson, born in 1816 and raised in upstate New York, moved to Columbus in 1842. This is a collection of 20 letters she received over the next 40 years, many from friends and family she left behind. What is interesting is the amount of gossip that fills these letters. We tend to think that ladies were too proper to gossip so much in the 19th century. Not at all. For years Beulah's friends kept her up to date on other people's business. We also hear much about men and a regular stream of comments about marriage, a topic that was evidently on the minds of many single women of the era. One advises, "Beulah John says you had better get married before you are thirty because girls think so much about it after that they entirely lose their minds." This must have been little comfort to Miss Johnson, as she was 29 at the time. The news in these letters of all her old friends who got married must have turned up the pressure on Beulah even more. A Mary Paddock writes her, "Bulah, Sarah Maxfield told me to tell you that you must not get all the old Batchelors for she was a coming out there and she wanted one..." In 1850, when Beulah was now 34, Philema Johnson writes, "When you get married come to Chicopee and make us a visit for I want to see you very much old maids are envious in such matters make a good choice don't be in a hurry take time you are young enough yet the market for old maids is dull here but the young have to take it willing or not..." Evidently Beulah never did marry. According to the 1860 census, she was still single and living with her parents at the age of 43. In the last of these letters, sent in 1882, her last name was still "Johnson." One can only wonder what her responses were to her friends and relatives on this subject, and why she remained single. Priced at $450.
B.J. Milam was an "honest farmer" who went on a long journey around the western United States early in the 20th century, and left us a very rare book about his travels. Its title is The Honest Farmer from Arkansas on a Lark Seein' the West, and it was published around 1905. The book takes the form of letters Milam wrote back home to his wife. Milam originally set out for the Oklahoma territory to claim some land, but wasn't satisfied with what he saw. Instead of returning home, Milam took off on a journey that would take him from southern Texas to northern Washington State and Canada. He tells us about the things he saw, including visits with Native Americans, and includes pictures he likely took himself. I don't know why this honest farmer didn't return quickly home, or whether poor wife Mollie got stuck slopping the hogs back on the Arkansas farm while Burt got to explore the West, but if you buy this book you may find an explanation. Item 110. $2,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 1: Bob Dylan, his high school classmate's yearbook with his senior portrait, signed and inscribed to her, 1959. $10,000 to $20,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 4: Various entertainers, Group of 30 items, signed or inscribed, various dates. $1,500 to $2,500.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 27: John Adams, Autograph Letter Signed to Benjamin Rush introducing Archibald Redford, Paris, 1783. $35,000 to $50,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 36: Robert Gould Shaw, Autograph Letter Signed to his father from Camp Andrew, Boston, 1861. $10,000 to $15,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 53: Martin Luther King Jr., Time magazine cover, signed and inscribed "Best Wishes," 1957. $5,000 to $7,500.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 127: Paul Gauguin, Autograph Letter regarding payment for paintings, with woodcut letterhead, 1900. $6,000 to $9,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 169: Suck: First European Sex Paper, complete group of eight issues, 1969-1974. $800 to $1,200.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 173: Black Panthers, The Racist Dog Policemen Must Withdraw Immediately From Our Communities, poster, 1969. $2,000 to $3,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 187: Marc Attali & Jacques Delfau, Les Erotiques du Regard, first edition, Paris, 1968. $300 to $500.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 213: Andy Warhol, Warhol's Index Book, first printing, New York, 1967. $800 to $1,200.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 215: Cookie Mueller, Archive of 17 items, including 4 items inscribed and signed. $3,000 to $4,000.
Swann, Apr. 10: Lot 249: Jamie Reid, The Ten Lessons / The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle; Sex Pistols, chromogenic print with collage, signed, circa 1980. $20,000 to $30,000.
Sotheby's Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
Sotheby’s: The Shem Tov Bible, 1312 | A Masterpiece from the Golden Age of Spain. Sold: 6,960,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Ten Commandments Tablet, 300-800 CE | One of humanity's earliest and most enduring moral codes. Sold: 5,040,000 USD
Sotheby’s: William Blake | Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Sold: 4,320,000 USD
Sotheby’s: The Declaration of Independence | The Holt printing, the only copy in private hands. Sold: 3,360,000 USD
Sotheby's Sell Your Fine Books & Manuscripts
Sotheby’s: Thomas Taylor | The original cover art for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Sold: 1,920,000 USD
Sotheby’s: Machiavelli | Il Principe, a previously unrecorded copy of the book where modern political thought began. Sold: 576,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Leonardo da Vinci | Trattato della pittura, ca. 1639, a very fine pre-publication manuscript. Sold: 381,000 GBP
Sotheby’s: Henri Matisse | Jazz, Paris 1947, the complete portfolio. Sold: 312,000 EUR
Bonhams, Apr. 8: First report outside of the colonies of the American Revolution, from American accounts. Printed broadsheet, The London Evening-Post, May 30, 1775. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce, James. The earliest typescript pages from Finnegans Wake ever to appear at auction, annotated by Joyce, 1923. $30,000 - $50,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Joyce's Ulysses, 1923, one of only seven copies known, printed to replace copies destroyed in customs. $10,000 - $15,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: ATHANASIUS KIRCHER'S COPY, INSCRIBED. Saggi di naturali esperienze fatte nell' Accademia del Cimento, 1667. $2,000 - $3,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Bernoulli's Ars conjectandi, 1713. "... first significant book on probability theory." $15,000 - $25,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Aristotle's Politica. Oeconomica. 1469. The first printed work on political economy. $80,000 - $120,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: John Graunt's Natural and political observations...., 1662. The first printed work of epidemiology and demographics. $20,000 - $30,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: William Playfair's Commercial and Political Atlas, 1786. The first work to pictorially represent information in graphics. $15,000 - $25,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Anson's A Voyage Round the World, 1748. THE J.R. ABBEY-LORD WARDINGTON COPY, BOUND BY JOHN BRINDLEY. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: La Perouse's Voyage de La Perouse autour du monde..., 1797. LARGE FINE COPY IN ORIGINAL BOARDS. $8,000 - $12,000
Bonhams, Apr. 8: Charles Schulz original 8-panel Peanuts Sunday comic strip, 1992, pen and ink over pencil, featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Lucy as a psychiatrist. $20,000 - $30,000