Search Results: Authors starting with C from McBride Rare Books

Boston: Munroe y Francis, 1827. Very good.. 288pp. Original calf; rebacked with spine laid down. Some light foxing and soiling, light dampstaining to last few leaves. Some notes and annotations, particularly to endleaves. The first American printing of any of Cadalso's works. This edition was created specifically for American students, "con notas y acentos de prosodia, al uso de los estudiantes en las academias, colegios y universidades de los Estados Unidos de la America Setentrional." Sales was an instructor of French and Spanish at Harvard, and his edition has accents on the emphasized syllable of each word even is such accents are usually absent. Shoemaker 28356.

Coyoteville: September 12, 1855. Very good.. [2]pp., plus integral blank. Original mailing folds, moderate toning, staining, and ink spotting, but still easily readable. Bottom fourth of integral blank excised. An informative Gold Rush letter about mining in the long-vanished ghost town of Coyoteville, which was an extraordinarily rich gold area for a couple of years in the early 1850s. A noted tunneling method, nicknamed "coyoteing" was developed in the town, and subsequently inspired the name of the town. In the present letter, Moses Pine writes to "Catherine" in Branch County, Michigan, and signs his name simply as "Mose Esq" at the conclusion. The author informs Catherine, presumably his wife or sister, of his activities, some of the economic realities, and some of the practical details of prospecting for gold in California. Presuming that "it would be impossible for the whole of Branch County to raise $10 unless they sell a horse," Pine comments that he had ginger bread on the Fourth of July… Read More

Santa Cruz: Santa Cruz Sentinel, 1915. Near fine.. [8]pp. Original printed wrappers, stapled. Very light wear. Scarce, illustrated promotional for Santa Cruz County, published in 1915 at the press of the local newspaper, the Santa Cruz Sentinel. The text provides an overview of the attractions of Santa Cruz, and then devotes sections to the Redwood forest and the Pajaro Valley, as well as fruit and flower production in the region and the growing poultry industry. With photographic views of the town and landscape of the surrounding area. OCLC locates only two copies, at Berkeley and UC Davis.

San Francisco: October 4, 1852. Very good.. [2]pp., with integral address leaf. Old folds, mild staining and soiling, three-inch closed tear to address leaf. An interesting letter documenting the family side of the California Gold Rush, in which a San Francisco man writes to his brother, offering to send his wife and daughters to Placerville as helpers. Interestingly, at first Phillips addresses the letter to his brother in Ohio, then scratches it out and writes in "Cal;" this most likely indicates the Phillipses hailed from Ohio and trekked to California along with scores of others in hopes of untold riches in the California gold fields. In his letter, Phillips writes that his wife, who has long been in San Francisco looking after a sick friend, can now leave as he is better, "And if you think best she will come up with the little girls and fix your carpets and superintend your affairs for a month or two untill your wife comes..." The formerly sick friend, Mr. Gardner, could also accompany them,… Read More

San Francisco: Tourist Association of Central California, 1915. Very good.. 64pp. Original printed wrappers, stapled. Small chip to lower corner of front wrap. Internally clean. An uncommon guide to potential automobile excursions from the Bay Area, published for visitors to the Panama-Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco during 1915. The text describes over twenty routes and the attractions to be enjoyed along them, and is accompanied by maps for each tour and numerous halftone illustrations of motorists exploring the California countryside in their cars. Fewer than ten copies in OCLC, mostly in California institutions.

Fresno: Kamiyama, 1954. Very good.. Panoramic photograph, 10 x 38 inches. Minor wear and occasional soft creasing. A substantial panoramic photograph depicting the somber scene of the funeral of Fresno resident Shigeki Yokota on September 8, 1954. A couple of hundred mourners pose for the camera at the corner of 9th and P streets in Fresno, with several wreaths of flowers flanking each side of Yokota's casket. Shigeki Yokota (1902-1954) was a Japanese-American doctor who moved his family to Fresno following the World War II internment period. Evidenced by the signature etched into the negative in the bottom left of the image, the photograph was produced by noted and prolific Fresno photographer Urasaburo "Frank" Kamiyama. Frank Kamiyama (1886-1974) was an important Japanese-American chronicler of his own community in Fresno and the surrounding area beginning in the early 20th century. He was arrested on March 27, 1942 as one of eight "named Japanese alien enemies" and interned at Angel Island in… Read More

Santa Barbara: N.H. Reed, 1906. Good.. [17] leaves. Oblong 12mo. Original pictorial wrappers, string-tied. Wrappers heavily chipped at edges, some light soiling. Minor soiling to edges of a few leaves. A handsome viewbook of Santa Barbara featuring gravure views of the mission, hotels, and local sights. One image features Teddy Roosevelt visiting the mission; other images depict waves crashing at high tide, the home of the first governors of California, and the Plaza del Mar. An advertisement by the publisher on the title page notes, "The pictures in this book, with hundreds of others, are made in Platinum in large sizes for framing at 927 State Street, Santa Barbara." We locate a single copy in OCLC, at the Huntington Library.

San Francisco: Bacon & Company, 1886. Good plus.. 64pp., plus two folding plates. Original printed wrappers. Spine and wrapper corners chipped; relatively sympathetic tape repairs to spine. Contemporary ownership inscription on front wrapper. Plates separating at folds. Even tanning, scattered foxing. Scarce, 1886 promotional pamphlet for San Joaquin County and its county seat of Stockton, "Addressed particularly to the stranger who wishes to know in what portion of California he may find combined those advantages in climate, location and soil, that would determine the fixing of his new home." The pamphlets contains two maps, one double-page color map of the county by soil type, chromolithographed by Britton and Rey, the other a folding map of rail routes and connections of the Sierra Nevada & San Joaquin Railroad. The verso of this plate depicts the county exhibit at the 1886 California State Fair. The text itself is quite extensive, with a focus soil and agriculture; numerous local advertisements… Read More

Monrovia, Ca: Press of the Monrovia News, 1907. Very good.. [24]pp. Original printed wrappers. Light edge wear to wraps. Light tanning, occasional foxing. Scarce illustrated promotional for the community of Monrovia, California, just east of Pasadena. The booklet contains numerous photographic illustrations of nearby natural sights and town architecture, as well as street scenes featuring early automobiles. Several leaves of text expound on the advantages of the town -- "Schools unexcelled anywhere. Churches of all leading denominations. No Saloons." OCLC locates five copies, at Berkeley, Azusa Pacific, UCLA, the California State Library, and Yale.

[N.p., likely San Francisco, 1853. Very good.. Broadside, 11.5 x 9.25 inches, with integral blank. Some toning and dust soiling, a bit heavier at top edge, a few very short tears and wear to the edges. An uncommon version of this notable California letter sheet, printing "The Miner's Ten Commandments" in three columns on the verso of the last page of a single folded sheet. It is similar to Baird 167 and Clifford 180, but does not have the eleven vignettes printed in the blank margins surrounding the text, suggesting that it is some form of proof printing or perhaps a piracy. The text prints the same series of ten commandments written by James M. Hutchings, which were designed to be followed by roughnecks while working at the mines in California during the Gold Rush. These include "Thou shalt have no other claim than one," "Thou shalt not go prospecting before thy claim gives out," "Thou shalt not steal a pick, or a shovel, or a pan, from thy fellow miner," "Thou shalt not tell any false tales about… Read More

[N.p., but California, 1934. Very good.. Broadside, approximately 11 x 5 inches. Previously folded. Minor wear and soiling. Scarce campaign literature in support of Frank Merriam but primarily against Upton Sinclair in the 1934 California gubernatorial election. Sinclair had formerly run for Congress as a Socialist, but won the Democratic nomination for this race, and although it was his most successful showing amongst his attempts to gain political office, he was still handily beaten by Merriam the Republican. Sinclair's platform during the race, End Poverty in California (EPIC), drew harsh criticism from conservatives as a Communist confiscation of private wealth, and grew more unpopular as migrants fleeing the Dust Bowl poured into California. The present broadside assails Sinclair's proposals for industry and agriculture in California, asserting that he will tax large farms and businesses out of existence, thereby losing the jobs of his putative working-class voters, and attacking his plan to… Read More

San Francisco, 1917. Good plus.. Sheet map, 28 x 22.75 inches. Folded. Somewhat rumpled; a few small chips at edges, not affecting text of map image. Several scattered patches of staining. A scarce real estate map of Berkeley, California, printed for and distributed by local agents Mason-McDuffie Company in 1917. Blocks are overprinted with lot numbers and letters, as well as tract and neighborhood names, and a street index is printed at the foot of the map. A large red arrow points to the location of the Mason-McDuffie office, just west of the University of California campus, and an area shaded in red, labeled "Northbrae Properties" at the northern edge of the city limits, indicates the principal real estate interests of the agents. We locate four copies, at Berkeley, Stanford, the California State Library, and the Oakland Public Library.

[Various locations in California, mostly Sausalito and other locations in Marin and Sonoma Counties, 1930. Very good.. Nine photograph albums in a variety of bindings, containing approximately 810 photographs, the great majority paper prints but with a fair share of tintypes and CDVs in the earliest two albums, plus 102 loose negatives, three negative rolls, and a metal container housing 135 later color slides. A phenomenal collection of photographs from noted but still somewhat obscure California artist, teacher, and amateur shutterfly Isabel Margaret Porter Collins. The collection numbers over 800 images ranging from early family images featuring dozens of Collins' antecedents from the 1870s to 1890s, personal albums featuring Collins with her family and friends in various locations in California over the course of about thirty years, and an album and some further images produced by Collins' son Henry Benjamin Collins, whom she called Ben. The collection was most likely retained by Ben. Isabel… Read More

Sacramento City: March 26, 1850. Very good.. [4]pp., on a single folded folio sheet. Original mailing folds, minor foxing, short closed tear along fold line of second leaf, small remnant of wax seal on last page. An incredibly informative manuscript letter written by Henry Passe (or perhaps Pape or Pope), a hopeful prospector during the early months of the California Gold Rush, writing about mining and trade goods in "this far off land." Passe arrived at the gold mines in October 1849, and immediately took ill for three months. After his recovery, he reports on the early haulings from the "dry diggins" at the mines, "not to be as good as the Rivers," which were not terribly fruitful, between six and ten dollars a day. Passe then encapsulates the whole spirit of the Gold Rush in a few sentences: "It is very difficult setting average on mining; it is just as low as 4 & high as $10 a day; there is one thing that stimulates all, there is a chance of one's striking a rich hole from which he can take out… Read More

Secret Ravine, Ca, 1857. Very good.. Four autograph letters, signed, totaling [8]pp., on differently-sized writing papers. Old folds, minor wear, toning, and dust-soiling. A collection of four informative manuscript letters written by J. Gilbert Paddleford, a struggling miner working in Secret Ravine, California during the Gold Rush. Secret Ravine was a hotbed of placer mining activity during the Gold Rush, though apparently less so by the time Paddleford set up there. Paddleford writes these four letters to his brother, Curtis and his sister, Ruth, over the course of four months, between December 2, 1856 and April 29, 1857. Paddleford discusses challenges and activities pertaining to his mining efforts, as well as discussing homefront matters such as romantic prospects for himself and his sister, inquiring about various family members, writing about his reticence to settle anywhere, and so forth. In his first letter, Paddleford discusses the impact of the weather and the lack of water on his… Read More

Oakland: Howe Print Company, 1895. Still very good.. 43pp. Original printed wrappers, stapled. Light wear and dust soiling to wraps, heaving along spine and at staples points. Paper somewhat browned, but sturdy. A scarce anti-everything screed by late 19th-century Oakland politician and crank, John H. Fones. In the present work, financial policy is the principal target, as Fones dedicates individual sections of this tirade to his anti-bank, anti-debt, anti-gold, anti-greenback, and anti-tariff agenda -- "Money has a legal but no intrinsic value." Nevertheless, he also reserves space to attack the character of both major political parties, contemporary school and college curricula, and religious organizations, "one of the greatest obstacles in the way of good government." The only solution, according to Fones, is government entirely by referendum, with members of the People's Party elected to enact the stated will of the people. An 1896 article in the San Francisco Chronicle characterized Fones as,… Read More

Rio Bravo, Ca, 1914. Very good.. [18],30pp. of manuscript on lined paper. Contemporary handmade plain wrappers, stitched. Minor edge wear and light staining to wrappers. A holographic diary and short story written by in 1914 by Rosy Thomas, a young California woman in Rio Bravo, a former settlement in Kern County along the Santa Fe Railroad near Bakersfield. The first portion of eighteen pages encompasses Thomas's diary, which begins on January 30 and runs through February 14, 1914. Thomas records her daily activities , including playing with friends, doing odd chores around her house (where she lives with her sister and aunt), and more. A sample entry from February 2 reads: "Monday I got up at seven o'clock. We were hurrying around so as not to be late for school. Then we went out and brushed and harnessed the horse. After breakfast we got ready and went to school. But we were around 10 minutes late. We got home late from school and we had to get in wood and get supper, and we went to bed about… Read More

San Francisco, 1863. Very good.. Six issues, each 8pp. Folio, on single folded sheets of newsprint. One issue separated along spine, minor foxing, creasing, and edge wear. A small collection of early issues of a notable scientific journal published in San Francisco beginning in 1860; the present issues were all issued during the opening years of the Civil War. The issues present here include Vol. V, No. 5 (April 9, 1862); Vol. V, No. 13 (June 9, 1862); Vol. V, No. 16 (July 2, 1862); Vol. V, No. 21 (August 8, 1862); Vol. VI, No. 4 (November 8, 1862); and Vol. VI, No. 38 (July 20, 1863). The articles present a wide range of scientific subjects, such as mining news, new inventions, lectures, extracts from scientific publications, metallurgy, balloon ascensions, patents, and more. Illustrations in the present issues include a map of Sinaloa, Heath's Spiral Spice Mill (and various other machines), the Coffey & Risdon Boiler Factory, and sectional illustrations of the Colorado River, among others. There… Read More

Santa Cruz: Sentinel Press, 1908. Very good.. [68]pp. 12mo. Original printed wrappers, stapled. Minor wear and soiling. Light biopredation to upper corner of last few leaves. In a custom cloth folder. A handsome promotional work published by the Santa Cruz Board of Trade, extensively illustrated with half tone views of the area. The text lauds the natural beauty and resources of Santa Cruz, including the agricultural and climate advantages. More than half the volume is comprised of illustrations. Relatively scarce, with only a handful of copies in OCLC. Rocq 14389.

Los Angeles: M. Reider, 1903. About very good.. [18]pp., accordion folded in nine panel. Original purple printed wrappers. Light wear to wrappers. Some wear at accordion folds; some separation along two folds, with one unobtrusive tape repair. Light toning. Handsome and scarce early 20th-century viewbook for Long Beach, California. The principal images are two striking panoramas, one of the beach and boardwalk on a busy summer day and the other of Long Beach Park being enjoyed by several women at leisure. Other views include portraits of fishermen, bathers, and beachgoers, and images of local architecture and geographical features. We locate only two copies -- at UC Irvine and UC San Diego.