Rare Book Monthly

Book Catalogue Reviews - June - 2004 Issue

More Americana From<br>Michael Brown Rare Books

Michael Brown Rare Books' 35th catalogue

Michael Brown Rare Books' 35th catalogue


By Michael Stillman

Michael Brown Rare Books
has issued its 35th catalogue of Americana. This latest catalogue contains 285 items, and the only theme to it other than Americana is that there is no theme. In other words, this is not a collection heavily centered on momentous events like the Revolutionary or Civil War. Rather, it covers the more common topics, disputes, and issues taking place on this continent in another era. Here are some samples.

Today, a story like this would dominate the news for two weeks, but in 1856 there was no television to bring it into our living rooms. This book is called, An Account of the Coal Bank Disaster at Blue Rock, Ohio, in which four men were buried beneath the hill for two weeks… Amazingly, all four emerged from the mine essentially unscathed. Item 178. Priced at $200. There’s also a second title out there concerning this incident: “The Thrilling Narrative of Edgell, Pearson, Gatwood and Savage…”

Thomas Paine was one of America’s greatest early patriots. His enormously popular “Common Sense” advocated independence from Britain, and was inspirational to the Declaration thereof. Paine would later return to his native England and then move on to France, in each case getting in trouble for his advocacy of democratic values. And, with his “Age of Reason,” which questioned religious beliefs, he would lose most of his popularity in the United States. However, Paine continued to advocate the interests of those with the least power.

His Agrarian Justice, item 183 in this catalogue, published in 1797, is a perfect example. In it he advocates a form of social security, 130+ years before Roosevelt. According to Paine, every person, on reaching the age of 50, would be granted the sum of 10 pounds sterling per year (the figure was targeted at the British, but he says the proposal applies to all countries).

However, Paine goes even further in proposing that everyone be given 15 pounds on attaining the age of 21. In his English preface, Paine begins the explanation in response to a Bishop who, in attacking Paine, wrote a sermon entitled “The Wisdom and Goodness of God, in having made both Rich and Poor…” He counters “It is wrong to say God made rich and poor; He made only male and female, and He gave them the earth for their inheritance.” From this he reasons that in the natural state, everyone has the right to the land, from which they could gain sustenance. However, civilization, with personal property rights, has taken that away from those without inheritances. So, to make up for the loss of their natural property rights, Paine advocates payments be made to all persons on obtaining majority, those payments to be funded by a 10% inheritance tax on those who accumulate private property during their lifetimes. It seems much of what Paine wrote about over two centuries ago remains at the heart of political discussion today. His book is priced at $375.

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  • DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025 DOYLERare Books, Autographs & MapsJuly 23, 2025
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    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
  • Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025 Forum AuctionsFine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper  17th July 2025
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    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.
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    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, July 17: Operating and Maintenance Manual for the BINAC Binary Automatic Computer Built for Northrop Aircraft Corporation. Philadelphia, 1949. $30,000 to $50,000.
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    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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