Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - December - 2005 Issue

Books From The Old West From Arthur H. Clark

Catalogue 923 from the Arthur H. Clark Company.

Catalogue 923 from the Arthur H. Clark Company.


By Michael Stillman

We have just received The Arthur H. Clark Company's 923rd catalogue featuring Americana and the American West. The Arthur Clark Company has been selling and publishing books for over a century, and this Spokane, Washington, firm remains one of the best at finding titles of interest to those who collect or study the Old West. Their selection includes both older material suitable for collecting, and more recent reprints appropriate for reading and learning. There is something here for anyone interested in Americana and the West in particular. Here are a few of the 369 items offered.

Mormon Brigham Young was one of the boldest and most effective leaders America ever had, but not even the best leaders experience universal success. Young promoted a new alphabet, known as the "Deseret alphabet," for 15 years. Not even his enormous influence could convince his people to accept it. In 1854, Young convinced the church to create a new alphabet. This was not a new language, simply a new alphabet which could present English phonetically. Produced at Deseret University (now the University of Utah), the alphabet consisted of 38 letters. Among Young's primary motivations for this phonetic language was that it would enable school children to learn to read much more quickly, so that they could focus more time on other studies. Foreign converts, who learned to speak but not read English, would also be able to learn to read much more easily. Other reasons may have been a desire to make it more difficult for outsiders to eavesdrop on their culture, or to limit what members were capable of reading. As sensible as the motivations may have seemed to Young, the flock wasn't buying, and essentially ignored the new language. Only four books were ever published in Deseret, the Book of Mormon, First Book of Nephi, and two schoolbooks. Item 219 is one of them, The Deseret Second Book by the Regents of the Deseret University (In Deseret phonetic alphabet). This book was printed in Salt Lake City in 1868. By 1870, the new alphabet had been effectively abandoned. Priced at $175.

Finn Burnett was a cowboy, Indian fighter, railroad man, and general son of the Old West in the second half of the 19th century. He seemed to be around for historic events. He was at Fort Phil Kearney in 1866 when the boastful Col. Fetterman led his 80 troops out to defeat the Sioux. They did not return. It was the White man's worst defeat save for Custer's escapade a decade later. Burnett took part in the Hay Field Fight, a successful battle for the Whites. He was also in Promontory, Utah, for the completion of the transcontinental railroad. In his later years, Burnett made his peace with the Indians and dedicated his life to teaching farming to the Indians on the Shoshone Reservation. His story can be found in Finn Burnett, Frontiersman: The life and adventures of an Indian fighter, mail coach driver, miner, pioneer cattleman, participant in the Powder River expedition, survivor of the Hay Field fight, associate of Jim Bridger and Chief Washakie. Item 172 is the 1937 edition published by the same Arthur H. Clark Company that in 2005 published this catalogue. $245.

Rare Book Monthly

  • 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: Francesca Woodman's Some Disordered Interior Geometries, 1981. Untrimmed publisher's proof sheets. $4,000 - $6,000
    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
  • Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Johnson (C.). A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the most Notorious Pyrates, 1724. £3,000-4,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Ordonez de Cevallos (Pedro). Viage del Mundo, 1st edition, Madrid: Luis Sanchez, 1614. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: North America. Merian (Matthaus), Virginia..., 1627 or later. £1,500-2,500
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: World. Waldseemuller (Martin), Tabula Nova Totius Orbis, Vienne: 1541. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Erasmus (Desiderius). The ... paraphrase of Erasmus... 2 volumes, 1st edition, 1549. £3,000-5,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Bible [English]. [The Bible and Holy Scriptures conteyned in the Olde and Newe Testament, 1562]. £3,000-5,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Smith (Lucy). Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith the Prophet, 1st edition, 1853. £1,000-1,500
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Derain (Andre). Pantagruel, signed limited edition, Albert Skira, 1943. £2,000-3,000
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Austen (Jane). Pride and Prejudice, illustrated by Hugh Thomson, Large Paper edition, 1894. £1,500-2,000
    Dominic Winter Auctioneers

    April 9
    Printed Books, English Bibles, Maps & Decorative Prints
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Ellison (Ralph). Invisible Man, 1st edition, New York: Random House, 1952. £200-300
    Dominic Winter, Apr. 9: Taschen Collector's Edition. Annie Leibovitz, limited edition, 2014. £1,000-1,500

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