THE CONQUEST OF DEATH by [Americana] Kinney, Abbot - 1893

New York: Privately published, 1893. Hard Cover. Very Good binding. Octavo. x, 259 pp. First edition. In publisher's cloth with title in gold on the front cover and spine. Relatively light shelfwear and soiling including a vertical scratch in the center of the front cover; spine is a trifle darkened; rear board is a bit bumped on the fore-edge; contents clean.

A very curious work by one most known as serious conservationist and developer. The seeds of this off-topic work for Kinney were planted when, in his words, "twenty years ago the fact was brought to my attention that two of the sovereign States of our Union had lost population between the years 1860 and 1870." He goes on to puzzle how this might be with New Hampshire and Maine in the face of immigration from Canada and Ireland, before lighting on topics "taken from serious publications": abortion and contraception. He goes on in the introduction to wonder why the rural populations are diminishing while urban populations are increasing. What follows is predictable, a discussion of sex, birth, parenting, marital advice, and religion that is predictably cringe-worthy. All that aside, this is a very nice copy of a remarkably uncommon book with scarcely two dozen institutional holding (OCLC 8099193) and seldom seen in the trade.