Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - February - 2006 Issue

Rare Americana from David Lesser Antiquarian Books

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Sometimes, our heroes of fields like science possess faults we might just as soon forget. We wish all could be like Benjamin Franklin, America's first and one her greatest scientists, and a magnificent humanitarian as well. Samuel Morse was not such a generous human being. His invention of the telegraph enabled the country to communicate instantaneously over long distances, replacing slow carrier services which took days if not weeks to deliver a message. However, Morse had his dark side, possessing virulently Nativist and pro-slavery sentiments. In 1836 (a year before the invention of the telegraph) he was a Nativist candidate for Mayor of New York (he was soundly defeated). Despite being a Northerner, he was an extreme supporter of slavery, even during the Civil War, going so far as to say it was sinful to oppose the despicable institution. He disparaged the Declaration of Independence for its equality sentiments. Morse was also vehemently anti-Catholic, and despised the Irish. In 1835, Morse put some of his ugly sentiments to paper in Foreign Conspiracy Against the Liberties of the United States... Claims Morse, "The ratio of increase in Popery is the exact ratio of decrease in civil liberty." Had Morse his way, there would have been far less civil liberty in America. Item 92. $175.

Item 89 tells a sad story. It is The Memoir of James Monroe, Esq. Relating to His Unsettled Claims upon the People and Government of the United States. Monroe was an extraordinarily popular president, carrying every state in the election of 1820. He ruled during the "Era of Good Feeling." However, by 1828, four years after leaving office, he was broke. In this pamphlet, he petitioned the government for expenses incurred on its behalf long ago, as far back as his mission to France in 1794. Evidently, he didn't need the money then, but now near the end of a wonderful career and life, he had to scrounge for money. Were he a modern politician, Monroe would have made a post-governmental career fortune as a lobbyist for some special interest, but he was a statesman, not a modern politician. $750.

Item 127 is one of those racist diatribes that emanated from those who defended slavery in the days leading up to the Civil War. In the early days of the republic, slavery was largely justified as a "necessary evil," but as the divide between supporters and opponents grew wider, the justifications became more offensive. This book, by J.H. Van Evrie, is called Negroes and Negro Slavery; the First, an Inferior Race - The Latter, its Normal Condition. This is one of the early printings (1853 - second printing) of a book republished at the outbreak of the Civil War. It is a collection of pseudoscience used to "justify" despicable behavior. Lest anyone think southern leaders were really just asserting states rights and self-determination, slavery being only an aside, among those who offered laudatory reviews on the wraps of this atrocity was Jefferson Davis, future President of the Confederacy. $375.

David M. Lesser Fine Antiquarian Books may be found online at www.lesserbooks.com or reached by phone at 203-389-9113.

Rare Book Monthly

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    17th July 2025
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    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.
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    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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    July 23, 2025
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    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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