Search Results: Authors starting with O from Ian Brabner, Rare Americana (ABAA)

[Likely Rochester, Minnesota, 1911]. Silver process photograph; captioned within image. 3½ x 9½ inches. Postal card imprinting on verso; not postally used. Small loss at upper right; some creasing at lower corners; Very Good. Real photo postcard of St. Mary's Hospital founded in 1889 in Rochester, Minnesota by Mother Alfred Moes, with Dr. William Worrall Mayo and his two physician sons, William J. Mayo and Charles H. Mayo, as the medical staff. The hospital is now world-renowned as the Mayo Clinic Hospital. This view shows the original hospital plus additions added between 1893 and 1909. Interesting dimensions for a postcard manufactured to be postally-transmitted.

London: John Murray, Albermarle Street, Publisher to the Admiralty, 1849. Thick 8vos. ix, 1400 pages. Bound in three-quarter calf, marbled sides, and black leather spine labels. From the library of Raymond L.J. Riling, his illustrated bookplate. bjcb 352255 A very handsome copy of this monumental biographical work; here bound in the nineteenth-century as two volumes. "O'Byrne was scarcely out of his teens and 'a civilian, previously unconnected with the Service' (O'Byrne, v), when he had the idea of compiling and publishing a record of the service of every living naval officer of the executive branch. Permitted access to Admiralty records, he worked at this for six years, publishing the first parts in 1845, and completed the volume of 1400 closely printed pages, on nearly 5000 officers, in 1849. The labour was great for the Admiralty records, his major source, were in a semi-chaotic state. He had extensive correspondence with his subjects, but he seems to have checked their statements against official… Read More

[Pennsylvania, c.1902]. Broadside. Approx. 15½ x 10½ inches. Laid down on stiff board; fold lines; minor creasing; Very Good. Pursuant to an Act of the Pennsylvania Assembly concerning elections, the state required that sections of that Act pertaining to voting procedures, ballots, voters, and, election officers was to be published for distribution at polling places on election day. Here those pertinent sections of the Act are published as a broadside; at the bottom is this printed note: "Note.-At the opening of the polls in each voting place, copies of the above [Sections 21 to 27] must be immediately posted at or in each voting shelf or compartment...copies must be immediately posted in or about the voting room... Copies of the same must be given to any voter at his request." The broadside contains references to "this Commonwealth" and discusses proper procedures to mark one's ballot (only male voters are referred to) to prevent it from being invalidated-an issue which remains very applicable in… Read More

Boston: Printed by Russell and Gardner, Congress Street, 1823. 40 pages. Original unprinted wraps. General handling; light foxing; Very Good. Rules for the Massachusetts House of Representatives as well as a directory of its members and their affiliated towns. Likely Peter Hay's copy with his notes to blank leaf at end. Hay was a representative from Stoneham, Middlesex County. (p24) As separately-issued, not in Sabin or Imprints. AAS only.

Philadelphia: Dickson & Gilling, Printers, 1882. 55, [1 (blank)], 57, [1 (blank)]pp. 4½ x 3 inches. Flexible cloth un-printed black wrappers. One terminal leaf with closed short tear; very good. Rare constitution for this Philadelphia fraternal organization, likely started by Freemasons, to help widows and orphans of deceased members.. In addition to the charter and by-laws, a list of members is stated.

Washington, GPO, 1880. 46th Cong., 2nd Sess., SED 112, 152 pages. Original printed wrappers, complete and as issued. Small loss to base of spine, few small edge-chips to wraps, and moderate soil to both covers; Good. A report providing relevant historical context to all treaties since 1869 between the United States and foreign government regarding any proposals or laws or matters to create what would later become the Panama Canal. The report asserted American control in any decision-making for any interoceanic navigation across the two Americas.

Philadelphia, Printed by John Richards, 1839. 12pp., sewn. 12mo, plain brown wraps; lower wrap with small corner loss; wraps and contents within show substantial evidence of pale dampstaining and inactive mold on the outer margins; about good. This address exhorts fellow Quakers to righteously oppose slavery; to avoid using products derived from slave labor; to attend to the moral and education uplifting of black Americans in their neighborhoods. Dumond p55.

Pittsburgh: J.B. Butler, 1822. 30 pages, and 2 page List of the Board of Trustees. Pamphlet; removed; without wrappers; outer pages expertly guarded with tissue; foxed; stains; all legible and Good. Scarce pamphlet from the early days of the Western University of Pennsylvania, now know as University of Pittsburgh. The pamphlet begins with an announcement of the inception of the University and how it is to be organized. "The trustees have the satisfaction to inform their fellow citizens of the West, that they have at length succeeded in organizing the institution...Until the means of the University may be so arranged as to meet the expenses attendant on the erection of more suitable accommodations, the several classes will be taught in the buildings, formerly occupied by the Pittsburgh Academy." Faculty are listed and the academic departments are described as well as what texts will be used in each class. Brief descriptions of the library, rules, religious duties, admission, are given followed by a… Read More

Washington City [D.C.]: Printed by William Duane, 1802. 52pp. 8vo. Pamphlet; removed; light even tanning to title-page, else Very good. Third American edition of the First Federal Census carried out in 1790, a landmark record in the establishment of Federal powers. The Census was "designed to provide continuity between past and future and to adjust periodically the relative shares of power and resources among the various constituent elements of the population. That much the framers of the Constitution originally intended for the census. Population growth was already rapid in the eighteenth century. Americans knew from the outset that they were creating an experimental form of government that would have to handle social change systematically." (Anderson p236) Signed in print, on p. 3: "Truly stated from the original returns deposited in the office of Secretary of State. Th: Jefferson. October 24th, 1791" and preceded only by the 1791 and 1798 Philadelphia editions. Howes rates this printing "aa". Howes… Read More

Washington City [D.C.]: Printed at the Apollo Press, by Wm. Duane & Son, 1802. 88pp. 8vo. Removed and folding table with old loss at top margin, else Very good. Octavo edition of the Second Federal Census, a foundational building block in the maintenance and coordination of Federal powers. The American population in 1800 was 5.3 million people. For this census, the "Indian, slave, and free black populations were listed by total number only. Memorials from Thomas Jefferson and Timothy Dwight requested that much more information be collected in the census. Both men wanted occupational or economic data to be collected and asked that the census distinguish the native-born and immigrant populations." (Anderson p18, quoted and paraphrased) Signed in print by then-Secretary of State James Madison and preceded only by the rare folio edition. Howes R-221. SABIN 70147. Shaw & Shoemaker 3442. Sowerby 3289; Jefferson's copy at Monticello, then sold to the Library of Congress. Anderson, The American Census. IB100

New York: Humanities Press, (1967). First Edition. 132 pages. 8vo. Publisher's cloth. Near fine in a good-only dust jacket which is rubbed and has an ink note, hidden, on its interior blank side. An examination and documentary study of the landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court case, Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld racial segregation in public facilities as long as all parties were treated equally. This "separate but equal" legal philosophy enshrined the racist "Jim Crow" laws enacted in the South after Reconstruction and in some other places too. Among the documents published here are material from the Louisiana origins of the "Plessy" case and the long legal argument made by White civil rights activist, author and lawyer, Albion W. Tourgée.

London: Cape Goliard Press, (1970). Quarto. Unpaginated. Hardcover in publisher's cloth and dustwrapper.. Slight mottling to covers; a number of pages with tiny bumping at cornertips; a very good clean copy. First Edition.

San Francisco: Four Seasons Foundation, 1971. First edition, first printing; without dust jacket, as issued. A fine copy. Transcribed and edited by George Butterick and issued as Writing 27.

San Francisco: Four Seasons, 1969. 40pp. First edition, first printing in near fine in wrappers. Issued also in publisher's cloth. A lecture given at the University of California Poetry Conference in July, 1965, which includes excerpts from The Maximus Poems. Inscribed by Olson to a fellow poet and his wife: "For Vince [Ferrini] and Mary/ my dearest friends/ Charles." "Ferrini was a Gloucester poet who was a close friend of Olson's but also a foil for him, and a character incorporated into one of the Maximus letters. In 1949, after seeing a poem in the magazine Imagi, Charles Olson Paid Ferrini a visit that Olson would later characterize as a 'fan call'. Ferrini was the catalyst that brought together Olson and poet Robert Creeley. Later Olson addressed his first Maximus Poems as letters to Vincent." (Ken Lopez, Bookseller)

New York: Grove Press, Inc. and London: Evergreen Books Ltd., (1960). 96 pages. Sm. 8vo. Blue wrappers with trifle rubbing; near fine. First edition, first printing, an "Evergreen Original." Olson's first full-size book of poems (following on a limited, small press selection published by Cid Corman back in 1953, and incorporating portions of that book here).

Iowa City: The University of Iowa, 1974. 28pp. 7¼ x 8½ inches. Oblong, green boards and without dustwrapper, as issued. Light bump to bottom edge of front cover, spine slightly faded; very good. Limited to 220 copies printed by letterpress on handmade paper at The Windhover Press. A handsome copy.

London: Jargon/Corinth, (1960). Unpaginated. 4to. Cloth. Near fine in publisher's pictorial dustwrapper. First trade edition thus of the combined edition of these poems, originally published in 1953 and 1956, Olson's major opus.

Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1988. 181 pages.  8vo. Hardcover with dustwrapper. Illustrations. A fine unread copy. The story of the unique relationship between Ezra Pound and Margaret Cravens.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. September 12, 1804. [2]pp. Quarto. About 300 words. Folds; integral address panel with red wax seal; very good and legible. In this two page letter written in Philadelphia on September 12, 1804, to John H. Christopher Heineken (?-1808) - a consul-general from the United Provinces of Netherlands - man-on-the-ground "Woche" ("Wocke" ?) politely but familiarly addressed numerous issues. The first issue involved the desired sale of a collection of paintings possibly owned by J. H. C. Heineken. Unfortunately, not one of the connoisseurs known to Woche offered any interest in buying.  Woche suggests different means for making the collection of paintings known to the buying public via newspaper advertisements. A Mr. Lechleitner is also potentially involved with Heineken's paintings. The second issue was the temporary lack of coffee in Philadelphia during the month. Following are greetings to be forwarded to Mrs. Heineken along with arrangements to consider the placing of a… Read More

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1965. 206 pages. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. A superb copy of the first American edition of the author's first novel, one of the first to deal with the emerging Rastafarian movement and the Jamaican ghetto (the Dungle). Patterson's existentialist story was advertised in the Times Literary Supplement as a "picture of a dark aspect of West Indian society, a sub-world of crime, violence, and religious extremism, not previously recorded by a novelist." (March 12, 1964) The book has twenty-three short chapters. Through the perspective of such characters as Dinah, a prostitute, and Brother Solomon, a Rastafarian leader, the novel explores the gritty, dehumanizing world in which they struggle to survive. The dust jacket for this American edition describes the book as a "novel from a newer world about an ultimate primitivism" and describing the Rastafarians as a bizarre cult, a "racist group, betrayed by their leaders into the fantastic notion that their return to Ethiopia… Read More