Search Results: Titles starting with E from Ian Brabner, Rare Americana (ABAA)

Lancaster. Wednesday, August 5, [c. 1801-1820]. [2]pp. 4to. Bifolium with integral address leaf; red postal cancellation. Laid paper, small paper losses; expert tissue mends. Intimate letter between two friends, "Sally" of Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Miss L. Clifton of No. 3 Eleventh Street in Philadelphia. Sally briefly describes the town of Lancaster and a garden there: "A dull, dreary, rainy, disagreeable day. What shall I do to kill time? No Fanny here to cheer my drooping spirits, no intimate friend to sympathise with me in all my afflictions. We were so unlucky as to get seats in the Monday's stage. I was just playing an interesting game at gammon with a gentleman when the stage stopt; I had almost one a pair of gloves 10/6 penny. What a disappointment! but you know they are indispensably necessary or, we should not know how to value the numerous blessings we are continually receiving: so I ran upstairs slipt on my wig, and after receiving the most affectionate adieus from all my attendants and… Read More

New York: Dodge Publishing Company, (1904). [1]-113, [1(blank)]pp + Plates. First Edition. Sm. 8vo. Paper covered boards; publisher's decorated dust jacket. 1917 presentation inscription by author. One-page, 1919 Autograph letter (not signed; possibly fragmentary) and printed New Year's greeting card from the author laid in. Fine condition with dust jacket with small chip at the head of the spine, a 1" closed tear to front panel, else in near fine condition. Beautiful example of a pre-World War I dust jacket with Arts and Crafts decorative motifs. A conduct of life book with some religious overtones. The book's vibrant plates serve to present character-building mottos and utilize a large, bold design program. Author Leigh Mitchell Hodges was a Philadelphia newspaper columnist who helped to popularize Christmas Seals in America.¹ The book is inscribed by Hodges to Mrs. Elizabeth Katherine Woodworth of Philadelphia. An Autograph Letter by the author (not signed) to Woodworth and a printed New Year's… Read More

[Np: np, nd]. 10pp. Printed self-wrappers. "A reprint from the Yale University Library Gazette, Volume 22, Number 4, April, 1948." light soiling to covers; very good. Check list of the paintings of American historical painter John Trumbull (1756-1843) kept by the artist himself. Edited and with an introduction by art historian Theodore Sizer of Yale. Trumbull lists the paintings by place of execution and date, often noting to whom it was given or its current location, price, and if it had been exhibited. Limited to 200 copies.

Washington, D.C.: Chronicle Print, [1865]. 8pp. 8vo.  Printed in two columns. Removed; without wrappers, disbound. Three speeches delivered during and after the Civil War by Union Brigadier General Christopher Columbus Andrews in Little Rock, Alabama and Brenham, Texas. After the capture of Little Rock in 1863, Andrews served as military commander there. "His strong support of the Unionist population helped facilitate the state's third constitution in the spring of 1864, which laid important groundwork for the state's eventual readmission to the Union..." (Encyclopedia of Arkansas) Andrews later oversaw initial Reconstruction efforts in Houston, Texas.

[No place. No date. ca. 1890s]. [6] unnumbered leaves, i.e., [12] pages. Gift book, silk tie. Approx. 4 x 5½ inches. Fine condition. Excellent example of this Victorian-era shape book printed with embossed covers and chromolithographic illustrations. The Prices wrote and illustrated a number of similar-themed titles. The front cover depicts two flying angels and and the covers themselves are designed and shaped as the wings of an angel. This example has no imprint. Its illustrated envelope is is partly printed in silver. Two issues, found in two copies total, are found in OCLC. One is published in London, the other in Melbourne.

[Boston and Syracuse: The Eastern-Empire Lyceum Bureau, c.1914]. [4]pp. Illustrated Promotional Piece or Circular. 11 x 8 inches. Large single sheet folded once to form four pages. Well-illustrated with half-tones from photographs. Contemporary performance annotation in pencil at tail of cover. Some old, small paper mounting strips along fold line; general folds; mild handling and creases; very good. The all-woman trio The Eastern Girls was comprised of a banjoist, a mandolin player, and a soprano singer. All the women sang. Here they are seen posing with their instruments and lyric sheets. Offering "vivacious entertainment" was this trio's objective and this promotional piece or circular, issued by their management company, The Eastern-Empire Lyceum Bureau, goes through great lengths to present the women's musical background and training. Banjoist Hazel Grace Browne, a graduate of Shaftesbury School of Expression of Baltimore, could "sing the rare old Southern melodies...as only a child of the South… Read More

Oceanside, California. June 10, 1914. Two sheets folded to form 8 total pages, as issued. Former mailing folds; general wear from handling; light staining; good. A rare and early issue of this Rosicrucian publication. This issue discusses the origins of the Society, has a "Question Department" section, a poem entitled "Spiritual Fires" by Z.B.P., "Retrospection of a Day (by a patient)" and related subject matter.

Two parts in one. 144pp. 12mo. Salem: Published by Cushing & Appleton, Joshua Cushing, Boston, printer, 1809. Contemporary sheep-backed marbled paper covered boards. Very good. bcj 322787. A nice early American edition of this classic. Shaw & Shoemaker 17398.

London: Jonathan Cape, (1996). Octavo. 276pp. Hardcover; pages mildly tanned, as usual, due to quality of paper used by the publishers, else fine in a superb dustwrapper. First trade edition and signed by Welsh on the title-page. Welsh's first and best-known book, Trainspotting, put contemporary Scottish fiction at the vanguard of UK writing.

Milwaukee: Morgan Press, 1978. Unpaginated. Small Quarto. Gray boards with tipped on printed panel. Text on rectos only. Near fine in a sunned yet still very good dustwrapper. Limited to 500 copies, this copy signed by the author at the colophon: "Douglas Blazek, August 1978."

Paris [France]: Imp. L. Hugonis, c.1875. 4pp. Brochure. 10½ x 8½ inches. Bifolium. Illustration cuts. Text in English. Mild creases; short closed tear at center fold; toning on final page; very good. C. 1875 English-language brochure or trade literature for totalisator counters manufactured by precision instrument manufacturer E. Deschiens of Paris, here promoting their counters to naval engineers. Deschiens' devices calculated the number of rotations or alternate motions made by engines and other machines. According to the Smithsonian: "Counting the number of revolutions of a shaft allowed steamship owners to gauge the distance between ports, helped gas companies measure the quantity of their product sold, and aided engineers seeking to determine when a steam pump would require fuel. Combined with a watch, revolution counters allowed one to measure the velocity of any number of machines. Eugène Deschiens, whose business was active in Paris from 1866 until 1894, was an eminent manufacturer of… Read More

Washington, D.C.: The Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Inc., [ca. 1931]. 90, [1]pp. Staple-bound with self-titled blue wraps. A fine copy. Contents include, "...The Color Line in Washington Industries; Changes in Employment of Negro Workers; Negro Government Employees; Gains and Losses in Industry Summarized..."

[Bristol, England]: Arrowsmith, (1934). First Edition. Frontispiece, 224pp. + 4 plates. Sm. 8vo. Publisher's red cloth, w/o dust jacket; map on endpaper. Spine sunned; mottling to boards; very good. History of the English slave trade by historian Charles Malcolm Macinnes (1891-1971), drawn largely from "...hitherto unpublished material and books and pamphlets of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries which are now rare..."  Chapters include "The Purchase of Slaves," "The Middle Passage," "Plantation Slavery," "The Abolition of the Slave Trade," and "The Anti-Slavery Movement in British Foreign Policy since 1807."  A Map appearing on both endpapers depicts "Sketch Plan of the Guinea Coast, showing principal Slave Centres."

London: The National Council for Combatting Venereal Diseases, 1917. First edition. 11, [1]pp. 5½ x 4¼ inches. Printed wrappers. Minor creasing; Very Good. A 1917 small pamphlet issued by the National Council for Combating Venereal Diseases; published as sex education to teach women of the ills of syphilis and gonorrhea. The dangers are real and the young female reader is told that it "...will be your part to fight against the causes of it, and to help others to fight. You must do it for the sake of the homes of England and the little helpless babies who have never done any wrong." (p5) Young girls are warned that an "undue friendship between boy and girl" can result in venereal diseases for girls as young as 13 and 14. The book is quite vague in its "how to's" for how one should put up a fight. Girls should not become to aroused and go "too far" (engagement does not mean marriage; no pre-marital sex) and girls should value, not misuse, their bodies as well as avoid drink. Those unfortunates who… Read More

New Jersey: Rutgers, 1967. 363pp. First Edition. Signed by the Author. Publisher's cloth. Fine in a dustwrapper in like condition. "This volume brings into full perspective the sequence of historic events in the Delaware Valley, and shows how King James's buffer zone had far-reaching influence, affecting the fortunes of Lord Baltimore, Sir Edmund Plowden. the Duke of York, William Penn, and the Puritans of New Haven"

London: W.H. Allen, 1960. First Edition. 240pp. Sm. 8vo. Publisher's cloth. Very good in a poor dust jacket. A delightful, literary work on English cooking and foods, with recipes incidental. The book is dedicated to playwright and wit Noel Coward.

New York: The Viking Press, (1980). First American Edition. xxxii, [3], 4-592pp. 8vo. Publisher's quarter cloth and paper boards; illustrated dust jacket. Hidden interior tape mend to dust jacket's rear panel; Very Good. Collection of bread recipes using various flours and yeasts compiled by English cookery expert and food historian Elizabeth David (1913-1992), "the best writer on food & drink [England] has ever produced." (ODNB) Recipes include American equivalents. A modern classic.

[Philadelphia]: Printed by John Thompson of Philadelphia for Alexander Brodie, 1798. 8vo. viii, [17]-70pp. [issued thus]. Contemporary leather over marbled paper boards. Provenance: Samuel Rockwell, 1809, his name seen four times within. Mild binding wear and pale dampstain to top margin of approx. 6 leaves. A very good copy. "The foundation text of jury independence and of the jury as a bulwark of English Liberty" and the last edition published in the 18th century, first authored in 1680 by English Parliamentarian, Sir John Hawles. The 1693 Boston edition was among the first law books published in America. As Legal scholar Lois G. Schwoerer has written: "The institution of the jury and jury ideology were transmitted to England's North American colonies. Magna Charta, the Petition of Right, and the Bill of Rights were the major vehicle carrying these traditions across the Atlantic... [P]rinted tracts, especially those by Care, Hawles, and Somers were responsible for highlighting and underscoring the… Read More

Paris: Louis Westhausser, 1887. iii, 411pp. Second edition. Bound in 3/4 calf and marbled sides. From the library of Raymond L.J. Riling, his illustrated bookplate. Pages tanned per paper quality used by the printer; a very good tight and presentable copy. bjcb 352224 A classic work by Prince Kraft De Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, a military general and writer during the Prussian empire. Originally published in 1887 as Gespräche über Reiterei (Conversations on Cavalry), the text was translated here in 1888 into the French language.

[iii]-xv, [1], 335, [1]pp. Engraved frontispiece. 8vo. Boston: Hilliard, Gray and Co, 1835. Publisher's green patterned cloth, spine lettered direct in gilt. Minor spotting to the spine, else very good. bcj 322791. Bacon's Essays, originally published in 1597, is his most enduringly popular work; two more editions were published in his lifetime and there were more than twenty editions in the 17th century alone. (ODNB) First separately published in America in 1807, in Boston, this "New Edition" of Essays, Moral, Economical, and Political, according to the title page, translates Bacon's quotations from the Latin and adds his "Apothegms, Select Sentences, Christian Paradoxes, Confession of Faith, and Essay on Death." Scarce to commerce.