AMERICAN

The Plight of the Creative Artist in the United States of America.

Author: 
Henry Miller [Bern Porter]
Publication details: 
[Houlton, Maine: Bern Porter, 1944.]
£75.00

8vo: paginated 3-38. Four full-page reproductions of Miller's paintings. In original yellow printed wraps. On brittle, aged paper, with the body of the book detached from the wraps, which are worn and with one corner at front creased. Title taken from front wrap. One of 950 numbered copies, signed by the publisher on the final page (beneath 'Publisher's Addendum') 'Bern Porter | 25 South St | Houlton Maine | Copy # 296'. Shifreen &Jackson A37a. Uncommon. Apart from the British Library, COPAC only lists copies at Cambridge, Manchester, Oxford and Bristol.

Two Letters in a Secretarial Hand, one of them signed by Amherst ('Amherst'), both to the Rev. Charles William Tonyn (d.1805) of Radnage, Bucks.

Author: 
Jeffrey Amherst, first Baron Amherst (1717-1797), field-marshall, conqueror of Canada
Publication details: 
The signed letter: 18 June 1781, Whitehall. The unsigned letter: 9 March 1782, Whitehall.
£220.00

The signed letter: 4to, 1 p. 11 lines of text. With the address on a separate and similarly-sized leaf. Franked 'War Office | ', and bearing two circular postmarks, one of them in red with the word 'FREE'. Good, on aged and creased paper. Assuring Tonyn that it will give him 'much pleasure' to recommend Tonyn's nephew George Augustus Tonyn for an army commission, 'as soon as I may be able to do it consistently with the very great number of Applications which I have already on my hands'.

Seven titles including 'Third Annual Report of the Puerto Rico Planning, Urbanizing and Zoning Board' (in Spanish); Ludlow's 'La Zonificacion en Puerto Rico'; and 'memorias suplementarias' for the municipalities of Cataño, Vieques and San Juan.

Author: 
William H. Ludlow; Junta de Planificación, Urbanización y Zonificación de Puerto Rico; Puerto Rico Planning, Urbanizing and Zoning Board [regional planning; Latin America]
Publication details: 
Titles published in 1945, 1946, 1947 and 1948 by the 'Junta de Planificación, Urbanización y Zonificación de Puerto Rico' (Government of Puerto Rico: Puerto Rico Planning, Urbanizing and Zoning Board).
£250.00

The seven items are all 8vo, and bound together in a contemporary dark green calf half-binding with 'JUNTA DE PLANIFICACION DE PUERTO RICO' in gilt on spine. Very good and tight, on aged paper with a little light foxing. Binding with wear to hinges and outer edges. Containing four fold-out maps and one fold-out table. ONE: Titled in English 'Government of Puerto Rico. Third Annual Report of the Puerto Rico Planning, Urbanizing and Zoning Board Submitted to the Governor of Puerto Rico. Fiscal Year 1944-45'. Pp: vi + 58 + 3 fold-out 'appendixes' (two maps and a table). Text in Spanish.

Two printed texts, each illuminated by hand in colours.

Author: 
Elbert Hubbard [Elbert Green Hubbard] (1856-1915), American writer, publisher, artist, associated with the Arts and Crafts movement [Roycroft Press]
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated. Each carrying the Roycroft Press device.
£450.00

Each item is on a sheet of laid paper, 39 x 29 cm, and each with the Roycroft watermark. Both items are grubby, with wear and creasing to extremities, but with the design and much of the margin entirely undamaged. Both have an identical block of printed text (roughly 13.5 x 9 cm) at the centre: 'THE truth is that in human service there is no low or high degree: the woman who scrubs is as WORTHY of RESPECT as the man who Preaches | ELBERT HUBBARD'.

One Autograph Letter Signed ('E. H.' twice) with the first four pages of another (lacking signature), both to 'My dear Gop'.

Author: 
Esme William Howard, 1st Baron Howard of Penrith (1863-1939), British diplomat [Henry Howard Molyneux Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon; Pixton Park, Dulverton]
Publication details: 
Complete Letter: 12 September 1908; on letterhead of The Tides, Bar Harbor, Maine. Incomplete Letter: 4 November 1908; on letterhead of Pixton Park, Dulverton.
£56.00

Both items in good condition, on aged paper. Complete Letter (12 September 1908): 12mo, 3 pp. Bifolium with mourning border. He thanks Gop [Goss?] for the 'letter of great length extended exclamation marks but otherwise agreeable & genial'. Howard 'can understand that vowing to keep silence the next best thing is to write to someone'. Gop's 'instinct is sound': Howard has 'abandoned Presque Isle which is a 12 hrs journey from here'. Gives a date for his return to Manchester.

Autograph Note Signed ('Gilbert Parker.') to 'Mr Anderson'.

Author: 
Sir Gilbert Parker [Sir Horatio Gilbert George Parker] (1862-1932), Canadian novelist and British politician [early cinema]
Publication details: 
5 April 1922; on letterhead of 24 Portman Square, [London] W.1.
£28.00

4to, 1 p. On aged, worn paper with small area of loss at head (not affecting text). He will be 'pleased to act on the Committee to judge of the stories for filming', and is glad that 'the work will not be onerous'. In a postscript gives the version of his name he wishes given for announcing ('Right Hon. Sir Gilbert Parker Bt.'). According to his entry in the Oxford DNB, no fewer than sixteen of Parker's novels were filmed. As head of British propaganda in America, 1914-1916, Parker had a direct involvement with the medium.

Typed Letter Signed to the actress Mary Lawton.

Author: 
Samuel L. ('Roxy') Rothapfel [Rothafel], American theatre impressario
Publication details: 
29 December 1917; on letterhead of the Rialto, Times Square, New York.
£56.00

One page, quarto. On paper discoloured with age. Attached along one edge of blank verso to card mount. Reads 'To simply tell you that your work is good would be putting it mildly. Things that I have heard all about me as I sat and watched the performance for the first time, from a loge seat, if you heard them, make [sic] you very very happy. | Your appearance is majestic; your enunciation beautiful; your reading and interpretation a delight. I cannot tell you how proud I am of you.

Illustrated Catalogue of Acts and Laws of the Colony and State of New York [...] constituting the collection made by Hon. Russell Benedict, Justice of the Supreme Court of New York.

Author: 
Hon. Russell Benedict, Justice of the Supreme Court of New York [The American Art Association]
Publication details: 
To be sold [...] on Monday, February 27th, 1922 [...] The sale to be conducted by Mr. Thomas E. Kirby and his assistants, of The American Art Association, Managers, New York City.
£60.00

Octavo: 261 unpaginated pages. In original printed wraps. Internally sound and clean, in stained and creased wraps. Unobtrusive ownership mark of Myers & Co. of London on front wrap. Fifty full-page facsimiles of title-pages, etc. Foreword by Benedict, followed by Resume, beginning, 'The Collection of Laws belonging to Judge Russell Benedict, [...] is the Most Important Collection of its kind that has ever been brought together by a private party.

Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences: To the End of the Year M,DCC,LXXXIII [1783]. Volume I.

Author: 
American Academy of Arts and Sciences [James Bowdoin, Edward Augustus Holyoke, Benjamin Lincoln, Joseph Willard, Mannaseh Cutler, Caleb Gannett, Eli Forbes, Edward Wigglesworth, Jeremy Belknap et al.]
Publication details: 
Boston: Printed by Adams and Nourse, in Court-Street. 1785.
£120.00

4to: xxxii + 568 pp. Very good, on lightly spotted and discoloured paper. In heavily-worn original boards, consisting of quarter-binding with grey boards and cream spine, with slight staining at head of spine. Foxed endpapers. Lacking plates. Fifty-four papers, by James Bowdoin, Edward Augustus Holyoke, Benjamin Lincoln, Joseph Willard, Mannaseh Cutler, Caleb Gannett, Eli Forbes, Edward Wigglesworth, Jeremy Belknap and others.

The London Booksellers - Etymology of the Term Yankey. Being an Excerpt from The Yankee in London. First published in 1809.

Author: 
Royall Tyler [John Kristensen; Firefly Press; Kallistos Press]
Publication details: 
[Somerville, Massachusetts.] Kallistos Press. 1984. [Printed at Firefly Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by John Kristense.]
£150.00

Limited to 200 copies and signed by the printer John Kristense. 8vo: [13] + [1] pages. Stitched. In original blue printed wraps. Good, with minor wear at head. The colophon reads 'The London Booksellers - Etymology of the Term Yankey was hand set in English Monotype Baskerville and printed on Curtis Ragston paper in an edition of 200 copies at Firefly Press in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by [signed 'John Kristense'] who sends it as a 1983-84 holiday greeting to his friends. The Society of Printers in particular is thanked for honoring him in 1983 with membership.

Steel engraving captioned 'Birds Eye View of the City and County of New-York with Environs.'

Author: 
Charles Magnus (1826-1900), German-born American engraver and printseller [New York; steel engraving; maps; travel; topography]
Publication details: 
[circa 1855] 'Sold by Charles Magnus, 12 Frankfort Street, New York.'
£80.00

Dimensions of print 11.5 x 19.5 cm. At the head of the recto of the first leaf of a bifolium (leaf dimensions 28 x 22.5 cm). The print itself is clear and undamaged, on aged paper. With traces of cuttings mounted onto the internal pages, and closed tear to the blank second leaf. An impressively detailed engraving, showing the bustling port and layout of the city, with church spires and prominent buildings. A copy of the item survives used as a letter home from a German girl in 1855. The copy in the New York Public Library is ascribed to 'C. Magnus, Lith. 22 N. William St.'

A Catalogue of New & Popular Works, And of Books for Children, Suitable for Presents, Sunday School Libraries, and Prizes.

Author: 
E. P. Dutton & Co., publishers, New York [book catalogue; children's books; juvenile]
Publication details: 
[October 1881] New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 713, Broadway. Griffith & Farran, St. Paul's Churchyard, London.
£30.00

12mo. 32 pages. Unbound. On browned high-acidity paper. Loss to margins of first and last leaves, but text clear and complete, save for the dating in bottom left-hand corner of the title: <...> 8. 81. Cancelling all previous Editions of this Catalogue.' Line in blue pen around the words 'for Children' in the title, and pencil markings (by a child) to p.30. Circular engraving beneath title captioned 'Goldsmith introduced to Newbery by Dr.

Engraved election certificate of 'The New York Historical Society', with engraved illustration by Simond, engraved by Durand, of 'The arrival of Henry Hudson on the 4th. Septr. 1609'.

Author: 
The New York Historical Society [Louis Simond (1767-1831); Asher Brown Durand (d.1869)]
Publication details: 
Undated [circa 1830?]. [New York.]
£150.00

Printed on one side of a piece of thick wove paper, watermarked 'G REIG', roughly 53 x 41 cm. Worn and a little spotted and grubby, with creasing and wear to extremities, but good overall, with text and design clear and entire. Handsome boldly designed certificate. Not filled in and with no manuscript additions whatsover. The illustration, an oval roughly 12 x 17 cm, shows the ship approaching white cliffs on shore, with a boat containing seven natives in the foreground.

Autograph Signature and two black and white Photographs.

Author: 
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), American composer, pianist and conductor
Publication details: 
Edinburgh, 1973.
£120.00

All three items in very good condition. Clear, bold signature, on a cropped piece of paper three inches by five wide, reading 'Leonard Bernstein | Edinburgh | <'73>'. The first photograph (six and a half inches by eight wide, and with the stamp of the Scottish Tourist Board on the reverse), shows a smiling Bernstein in a Prince of Wales check double-breasted jacket with a bespectacled old gentleman in a single-breasted pinstripe jacket, admiring a bagpiper in full regalia at a British railway station (Edinburgh Waverley?).

Calendar, with colour illustrations and quotations, issued by the 'Ejército Argentino. Dirección General del Instituto Geográfico Militar', for '1950 Ano del Libertador General San Martin'.

Author: 
[Ejército Argentino. Dirección General del Instituto Geográfico Militar; General San Martin; Argentina; Argentinian; South America]
Publication details: 
10.000 - XII. - 49' [i.e. one of ten thousand copies printed in December 1949]. Ejército Argentino. Dirección General del Instituto Geográfico Militar.
£100.00

Landscape. Unbound. On thirteen pieces of paper, each 17 x 23 cm. Each leaf with two punch holes at head, and all held together by a piece of blue string. Good, on lightly-aged paper. The calendar has been printed on the reverses of old coloured maps. Covering leaf (illustrating the "Antartida Argentina"), followed by one leaf for each month. Each month carries a quotation from General San Martin (January: 'La calumnia como todos los crimenes, no es sino obra de la ignorancia y del discernimiento pervertido').

Autograph Signature.

Author: 
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Publication details: 
Date and place not stated.
£56.00

On a piece of wove paper, cut into a shape roughly corresponding to a 5 x 8 cm rectangle. Aged, discoloured and worn, with some of the autograph slightly smudged with blotting. The autograph of one of America's greatest poets. In Longfellow's small, tight hand, reads: 'With regards | Henry . W . Longfellow .' Thin slip of paper laid down on the reverse reads 'S. ENGLEFIELD COLLECTION | HENLEY ON THAMES'.

A speech delivered in the House of Commons in the debate on the North American blockade, Tuesday, March 7, 1862.

Author: 
Sir Roundell Palmer, M.P., Her Majesty's Solicitor-General [the Earl of Selborne; American Civil War]
Publication details: 
London: James Ridgway, Piccadilly. W. 1862.
£150.00

Octavo: 29 + [2] pp. Unbound, stabbed and stitched. Slightly dogeared, on grubby, lightly-spotted paper. Loss to top right-hand corner of title-leaf (not affecting text). Two pages of advertisements at rear, headed 'Important pamphlets, etc. Recently published by James Ridgway, Piccadilly.'

Speech delivered in the House of Commons on the "Alabama" Question, on Friday, March 11, 1863.

Author: 
Sir Roundell Palmer, M.P., Her Majesty's Solicitor-General [the Earl of Selborne]
Publication details: 
London and Cambridge: Macmillan and Co. 1863. [R. Clay, Son, and Taylor, Printers, London.]
£150.00

Octavo: 28 pp. Unbound, stabbed and stitched. Slightly dogeared, on grubby, lightly-spotted paper. Loss to top right-hand corner of title-leaf (not affecting text). Marked up in ink in a contemporary hand. COPAC lists copies at the British Library, Manchester and National Library of Scotland. The 'Alabama Question' related to what indemnity should be paid by Great Britain for damage done to United States commerce by the Alabama and other confederate cruisers built in British ports.

Dorothy Canfield. A Biographical Note'.

Author: 
Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879-1958), American novelist, educational reformer and social activist [Vrest Orton]
Publication details: 
Undated [1930s?]. 'Typography by VREST ORTON'.
£225.00

Stapled pamphlet of thirteen pages (dimensions of leaf 15 x 8 cm), in original grey printed wraps. Attractively produced in relatively small print. Small stain to rear wrap, and some spotting to p.12. Inscribed beneath frontispiece photograph of a pensive Canfield at her writing desk, 'With best greetings to Harry from [signed] Dorothy Canfield Fisher'. The final page consists of a list of 'Books By Dorothy Canfield', several of which are scored through in pencil, with the titles of four others added. No copy listed on COPAC, and none listed in the Yale and Harvard catalogues.

Legends of the West.

Author: 
James Hall
Publication details: 
Philadelphia: Published by Harrison Hall, 130, Chesnut Street. 1832. [Philadelphia: James Kay, Jun. & Co., Printers, No. 4, Minor Street.]
£150.00

8vo: [viii] + 265 + [ii] pp. Printers slug on page following 265, followed by a full-page advertisement by Harrison Hall, Philadelphia, and Collins & Co., New York, for 'Wilson's Ornithology', dated 'Philadelphia, July 1832'. In original brown paper boards, with brown cloth spine carrying white printed label. Tight, but in poor condition, with light spotting and damp-staining. Unobtrusive repair to closed tear on reverse of title-leaf. Ownership inscription of Joseph Malcomson (mill owner of Portlaw, County Waterford) to rectos of first four leaves, including title.

Autograph Letter Signed to 'Miss Zeman'.

Author: 
Francis Lambert McCrudden (1872-1958), editor of The Raven Anthology ('Issued Monthly by the Raven Poetry Circle of Greenwich Village')
Publication details: 
Undated; on letterhead of the Raven Anthology.
£85.00

Octavo, 2 pp. 23 lines of text. Lightly discoloured and slightly creased. The letterhead gives the names of seven of the Anthology's staff, and features an illustration of a raven. Regarding a line missed (beginning 'O fool') in the printing of a poem of Zeman's, he is pleased that Zeman has been able to 'see the matter from my side', and doesn't think 'an explanatory note in our next issue would be adequate'. Zeman's poem is 'beautiful' and 'well worth reprinting'. 'As to the Soiree, in your honor, think no more about it.

Papers on Literature and Art.

Author: 
S. Margaret Fuller [Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli]
Publication details: 
Two volumes. London: Wiley & Putnam, 6, Waterloo Place. 1846.
£250.00

8vo: [viii] + 164 pp; [iv] + 183 pp. Bound together in contemporary half calf binding, gilt, marbled boards and endpapers. A tight copy, printed on aged, spotted paper, with occasional light damp-spotting, in worn binding. Bookplate of Aemiliani Reich, on spotted, aged paper, by Gordon Browne, on front pastedown. The first volume has a four-page preface by 'S.M.F.', dated 'New York, July, 1846.' Both volumes contain eight essays.

Aklla.

Author: 
Inti Illapa' (pseud. of Santiago Pereda Hidalgo) [Peru; Peruvian]
Publication details: 
Peru [Santiago de Chuco]: Editorial INTI, '1950' and '16 de Febrero de 1951'.
£250.00

8vo: xii + 64 pp. In original green wraps, printed in red with illustration on front, with printed signature of 'Inti Tupac', and large distinctive publisher's device on back. Good, on yellowed high-acidity paper, in faded wraps, with Yapp edges a little chipped. Inscribed on fly-leaf 'Para el gran rotativo The Times. Inti Illapa. | Direccion: Inti Illapa | Santiago de Chuco | Dep. La Libertad | Peru.' No copy in the British Library. COPAC only lists one copy, at Cambridge, whose catalogue entry does not explain that 'Inti Illapa' is a pseudonymn.

The Pilgrim Fathers (1620-1920).

Author: 
W. J. Douglas-Hamilton [Pilgrim Fathers Records Society]
Publication details: 
Published by Commonwealth Fine Art and General Publishers, Ltd., For the Pilgrim Fathers Records Society, 4, Vernon Place, London, W.C.1. 1920.
£120.00

8vo, [ii] + 8 pp. Unbound stitched pamphlet. Lightly aged, and with short closed tears at head and foot of outer leaves. Dogeared corner to rear leaf. A 116-line 29-stanza poem, beginning 'The Pilgrims loved Old England, | Their hearts fed on her sod, | Their souls clung close to England, | But closelier [sic] to God.' and ending 'And through those centuries strenuous | In services to Man, | If sometimes sadly tenuous, | We claimed, and kept the Van.' Scarce: no copy on COPAC, in the British Library or Library of Congress.

Discourse, On the Objects and Importance of the National Institution for the Promotion of Science, Established at Washington, 1840, Delivered at the First Anniversary.

Author: 
Joel R. Poinsett, Secretary of War and Senior Director of the National Institution for the Promotion of Science [Smithsonian Institution]
Publication details: 
Washington: P. Force, Printer. 1841.
£35.00

8vo: 52 pp. Stitched pamphlet in marbled paper wraps. On aged, damp-stained paper, with foxing to last leaf. The Institution was later renamed the National Institute and eventually became a part of the Smithsonian Institute.

The conference. Instructions given to Sir Robert Ladbroke, Knt. William Beckford, Esq; the Right Hon. Thomas Harley, Esq; and Barlow Trecothick, Esq; representatives of the City of London: by their constituents.

Author: 
The City of London [Alderman William Beckford; Sir Robert Ladbroke; Thomas Harley; Barlow Trecothick; Charles Clavey]
Publication details: 
(Signed) CHARLES CLAVEY, Chairman of the Common Hall. Guildhall, Feb. 10, 1769.'
£280.00

Printed on one side only of a piece of watermarked laid paper, dimensions 32.5 x 19.5 cm. Folded twice for insertion in the magazine. Good, apart from strip of approximately 0.5 x 5.5 cm loss along top fold, affecting one word of text, and neatly repaired with archival tape. At head of page clean impression of satirical engraving (roughly 8.5 x 13 cm), showing Beckford (father of the connoisseur), in Lord Mayor's robes, telling Harley to 'Receive Instructions & not Silver'. Harley, holding a jacket, tailor's iron and shears, replies 'Teach us our Lesson! Are we then School Boys?

Autograph Letter Signed ('Fevret e St. Mémin | Consr. du Musée de Dijon'), in French, to an unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin (1770-1852). French engraver painter and Conservateur du Musée de Dijon [Fevret de St. Mésmin; Févret de St. Mesmin; Fevret de St Mesmin; St. Mémin]
Publication details: 
Dijon le 1r. octobre 1842.'
£125.00

4to: 2 pp. 26 lines. He is totally flattered by the obliging comments of the recipient in sending the first three issues of 'l'Artiste'. Discusses the merits of this 'intéressant ouvrage'. Describes the limited 'coopération' he will be able to provide. 'J'espere ainsi que vous voudrez bien vous contenter de l'envoi que j'ai l'honneur de vous faire de la notice, dernièrement publiée, du musée que je dirige, dont la 1re et la 4e.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Bob. Crosby') to 'Dear Ken' [Ken Ryan].

Author: 
Bob Crosby (1913-1993), American dixieland bandleader and vocalist, best known for his group 'Bob Crosby and the Bob Cats'
Publication details: 
New Years Eve, 1955.' On letterheads of The Aladdin Hotel, Kansas City, Missouri.
£56.00

4to, 4 pp. Good, on lightly creased paper. From the Ken Ryan collection. Long, rambling, good-humoured letter on the . 'Here it is New Years Eve and I'm at home, and being quiet. - I was tired as we have worked hard all week. - and its good to be quiet. [...] London must have been interesting during the holiday season - I hope to some day see it but when I ever will is the question I'm never to [sic] good to save money. - Next week we have the Monte Carlo Ballet. Russe. and I am looking forward to seeing it. with pleasure. I've always been so fond of ballet.'

Autograph Subscription signed.

Author: 
Virginia Frazer Boyle, American Science Fiction writer, novelist.
Boyle
Publication details: 
No place or date surviving.
£50.00
Boyle

Scrap of paper,3.5 x 1", with the words, in Boyle's hand, "you and believe me / with sincere regard, / Your friend / P.G. Wodehouse,". Paper partly laid down on card, unevenly and crudely cut, staining, corners have remnants of a laying down, and another hand has added "Author of 'Devil Tales' &c. Memphis, Tenn." (the word "Author" partly obscured. The text is clear if a little faded. Items in Boyle's hand appear to be scarce.

Some Reminiscences and Reflections on Collecting Autographs.

Author: 
Charles King Wadham [autograph collecting; Yale University Press]
Publication details: 
Dalton, Massachusetts: Maisonette. ['Privately printed, The Printing-Office of the Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, March 1931'.]
£45.00

Octavo: 32 pp. Stitched. In original printed wraps. Internally clean and tight, but wraps dogeared and grubby, with closed tear and pen mark. Tissue-guarded frontispiece of Wadham, with small dogear to top corner (not affecting image). Facsimile of Whittier's autograph. Read before the 'Saturday Evening Club of Dalton'. 'My collection today is so comprehensive [sic] that I have no hesitation in soliciting the most distinguished personages; in fact, I feel that I am conferring an honor rather than offering an insult in asking them.

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