Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - May - 2010 Issue
Fine Books from James Cummins Bookseller
Illustration of the just opened London and Birmingham Railway.
Item 15 is a great find for railroad buffs: Drawings of the London and Birmingham Railway, by John C. Bourne, with an Historical and Descriptive Account, by John Britton F.S.A. This is early railroad material, as its 1839 date attests. The work illustrates and describes this great engineering feat of the 1830s, the construction of the first railroad from London to the north. The line was opened in 1838, and merged with a larger railroad company in 1846. $9,000.
Item 77 is a large collection of autographs related to Abraham Lincoln. This is not your usual collection of Lincoln and his cabinet ministers or close family. It is dozens of autographs of people with more obscure connections to the Civil War President, autographs not likely to be easily found today. Included are all eight of the other members (with Lincoln) of the "Long Nine," 1830s Sangamon County, Illinois legislators who succeeded in bargaining their way to enough votes to move the state capital to Springfield. There is a signature from Mary Owens, to whom Lincoln proposed, but who apparently put on a substantial amount of weight while back home in Kentucky, repulsing Lincoln. He then managed to convince her life would be miserable in Springfield. There are signatures from his uncle Mordecai Lincoln, his father-in-law, sister-in-law, and the man who performed his marriage. There is even the autograph of John McNamar, who was engaged to Ann Rutledge, by legend, at least, Lincoln's first love (she died at age 22). Other names include his schoolteacher, a couple of Springfield saloonkeepers (did Lincoln hang out in bars?), the man who married Lincoln's parents, a partner of Lincoln in a store, a Lincoln step-brother, the minister who buried his son Eddie, the man who nominated him at the 1860 Republican convention, and many, many more. $8,000.
James Cummins Bookseller may be reached at 212-688-6441 or cummins@panix.com. Their website is www.jamescumminsbookseller.com.
Rare Book Monthly
-
Sotheby's
Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
Available for Immediate PurchaseSotheby’s: William Shakespeare.
The Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare, 1960. 7,210 USDSotheby’s: Charles Dickens.
A Christmas Carol, First Edition, 1843. 17,500 USDSotheby’s: William Golding.
Lord of the Flies, First Edition, 1954. 5,400 USDSotheby's
Fine Books, Manuscripts & More
Available for Immediate PurchaseSotheby’s: Lewis Carroll.
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Inscribed First Edition, 1872. 25,000 USDSotheby’s: J.R.R. Tolkien.
The Hobbit, First Edition, 1937. 12,000 USDSotheby’s: John Milton.
Paradise Lost, 1759. 5,400 USD