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First edition. 16mo, v, 333pp; smooth dark green cloth stamped in gilt front and spine; beveled edges; light brown floral endpapers. T.e.g. Title page printed in red and black. Tips a trifle bumped and frayed. Near fine. Third in a series entitled "The Literary Life". In his Preface, the editor writes "These are not biographies..., but a series of sketches, anecdotes, and personal reminiscences relating to the more modern authors — that is authors who are now living, or who have died very recently and whose work belongs to the present half of the century". Represented are Thomas Carlyle, George Eliot, John Ruskin, John Henry Newman, Alfred Tennyson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Cullen Bryant, Longfellow and Whittier, Lowell and Holmes, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Walt Whitman, Bayard Taylor, Swinburne and Oscar Wilde, the Brownings, Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeracy, and "Some Younger Writers" (William Morris, Matthew Arnold, Owen Meredith and Jean Ingelow). The editor drew upon a variety of magazine articles, his own interviews with various authors and reminiscences of others. Margaret Fuller, for instance, describes meeting Thomas Carlyle, a report originally printed by THE NEW YORK HERALD TRIBUNE and published in AT HOME AND ABROAD. Louisa May Alcott reports her introduction to Jean Ingelow, an account which THE QUEEN, an English periodical first published (this, the first book publication). The suggestion that Alcott a mushy sentimentalist evaporates when she writes of Ingelow: "[she] was plain, rather stout, hair touched with gray, [with] shy yet cordial manners, and a clear, straightforward glance, which I liked so much that I forgave her on the spot for writing those dull stories". A handsome copy. BAL 200. The publisher issued at least two subsequent printings of PEN PICTURES.
PEN PICTURES OF MODERN AUTHORS
(Alcott, Louisa May) [Walsh] Shepard, William (ed).
New York: G.P. Putnam, 1882.
Price: $250.00
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First edition. 4-1/2 x 5" buff self-wrappers decorated at front panel with one of Marie Angel's illustrations; unpaginated; with red publisher's box as issued, cover illustration mounted at front panel. Light brown smudge mark, not offensive, at front panel; red pencil mark (3/4") at front panel of box. Generally fresh and attractive. Near fine. With an introduction by Philip Hofer, then head of Harvard's Department of Printing and Graphics. Hofer describes Angel as "one of the best 'animal artists' of our time. She works not only with the skill of a medieval manuscript illuminator, usually on a small scale, but has also developed her own style of lettering which is classic yet novel, and with a compositional invention that is wholly modern her own". The alphabet animals, chameleon, fritallary, jerboa, etc., are in delicate monochromatic shades against a letter of varying blues, grays and reds. Printed by The Stinehour Press. A little, but exquisite book.
AN ANIMATED ALPHABET
Angel, Marie.
[Cambridge, MA]: (Harvard College Library Department of Printing and Graphics), (1971).
Price: $65.00
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First edition. (1/1,000). Folio (8-3/8 x 6-1/4), unpaginated; patterned plastic covers with title, author and introduction credit printed in black and riveted to stiff wrappers with photograph of plastic hoses from the Airplayers series. Minute chip to foot of spine. Fine. Printed and illustrated leaves of images, multi-textured vinyl sleeves and an illustrated vinyl light-up (with red LED) centerfold evolved out of Armstrong's 1982 kinetic sound sculptures. In AIRPLAYERS, as in her other work, Armstrong seeks to create parallel visions of the outer world and the human interior: here the heart of the book becomes an X-ray like double-page photograph of the rib cage with a red human heart beating beneath. McCormick entitles her introduction "Interface, Hyperspace, Social Grace: Armstrong's Techno-Morphology of Perception". Also printed are "Note on AIRPLAYERS" by Robert S. Ross and "Technical Date on AIRPLAYER X" by Nick Didkovsky. The artist adds a note on the images. Also provided are a chronology of AIRPLAYERS and biographies of the contributors. Sara Garden Armstrong has had a number of solo exhibitions and her work is in the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Bibliotheque Nationale, etc. and in the collections of General Electric, The Gannet Company and Time.
AIRPLAYERS Introduction by Carlo McCormick
Armstrong, Sara Garden.
New York: Willis, Locker & Owens, (1990).
Price: $95.00
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WOMAN'S WORK IN MUNICIPALITIES National Municipal League Series
Beard, Mary Ritter.
New York and London: D. Appleton and Company, 1915.
Price: $125.00
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First edition. (Issued simultaneously in hard cover). Inscribed by the artist at the half-title page, "For / All best, / Judy Chicago / 1980". Large 8vo, 287pp; (including endmatter); glossy black wrappers with photograph of "The Dinner Party" at the front cover. Light overall wear with cracks in black at the spine, along edges and tips. Very good. "The Dinner Party" celebrates women and women's history. The work itself. a table with embroidered runners and place settings "symbolizing 39 women representing different aspects of women's history from primordial goddesses to contemporary writers and artists", was a collaborative effort organized by Judy Chicago. AMERICAN WOMEN ARTISTS, pp. 376, 379, 407-413. TIMELINES OF AMERICAN WOMEN'S HISTORY, p. 381. THE WOMEN'S CHRONOLOGY, p. 662.
EMBROIDERING OUR HERITAGE The Dinner Party Needlework Written and Illustrated by Judy Chicago Needlework background provided by Susan Hill Designed by Sheila Levrant de Bretteville
Chicago, Judy with Susan Hill.
Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 1980.
Price: $75.00
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Only edition. Pamphlet: 5-1/4 x 3-7/8", [12]pp; black wrappers (stapled) with silver lettering and decorations; halftone photographic portrait of the writer at the last page, with facsimile signature. Very good. An account of an aged couple who lose their home, despite having worked all of their lives. At the story's end appears a letter from [Bishop] Frances McConnell as President of the American Association for Old Age Security. He writes the enactment of a state "Old Age Security Law" could prevent stories such as that of Martin and Bertha. Obviously written prior to the passage of the Social Security Act, LIGHTS OUT is a sentimental, but effective argument for enabling those earnings have provided them a meager living to grow old in the comfort and dignity of their home. Jane Addams, who served as a vice president of the Association and was a good friend of Zona Gale, wrote an endorsement of the piece. The writer's first stories featured two elderly lovers, suggesting her empathy for the elderly throughout her life. It was after she met Senator Robert M. La Follette in 1913, however, that she became an activist in a variety of causes: the American Civic Association, the Women's Trade Union League, the General Federation of Women's Clubs, the Wisconsin Peace Society and the Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association. As Walter Rideout summarized in his profile of the writer in NOTABLE AMERICAN WOMEN, "A conscientious author, she was equally a conscientious citizen of her nation and her state, both in her devotion to idealistic causes and in her willingness to assume public responsibilities". LIGHTS OUT is an excellent and unusual example of these qualities.
Pamphlet: LIGHTS OUT A Tragedy
Gale, Zona [and American Association for Social Security].
[New York City: American Association for Old Age Security, ca. 1927-1933?].
Price: $450.00
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First edition. 8vo, 188pp; + a capsule biography of the writer; orange wove cloth with black stamping; orange dust jacket lettered in tan and black. Spine sunned to a light orange; minor touches to use to jacket. Very good. 22 prose pieces written during the '60s and '70s reflecting on the racial strife which harried America during this period. June Jordan (b. 1936), essayist, educator, activist, novelist, biographer, playwright and anthologist, has been one of the African-American communities most versatile and spirited writers. Her first book of poetry, LOOK AT ME, published in 1969 marked her as an eloquent new voice. She has since published nearly 20 books, ranging from children's titles such as KIMAKO'S STORY to essays on the African-American experience such as CIVIL WARS and TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES (1992). THE ESSENTIAL BLACK LITERATURE GUIDE, pp. 202-204. OXFORD GUIDE TO AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE, pp. 409-410.
CIVIL WARS
Jordan, June.
Boston: Beacon Press, (1981).
Price: $35.00
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THE BEHAVIOUR BOOK: A Manual for Ladies
Leslie, Miss [Eliza].
Philadelphia: Willis P. Hazard, 178 Chestnut Street, 1853.
Price: $275.00
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First edition. Square 4to, unpaginated; aqua cloth binding lettered in dark blue at the spine; photographic dust jacket. Fine. With an essay by the photographer on "Summer Time". The book prints 65 full-color photographs by Joel Meyerowitz. Meyerowitz and his work with color photography is closely associated with Provincetown and Cape Cod as a whole. The images are at once familiar and haunting: a golden labrador retriever sitting at water's edge looking out at his family playing in the ocean; a solitary rower; brilliant red roses climbing a white trellis; sandy concrete steps to the lapping ocean below; a cross-and-bible white wooden door flung open to the front door with a summer's day beyond; a group of friends on a sand dune, their faces lit by the glow of the setting sun. A wonderful rendering of the season of the sun.
A SUMMER'S DAY
Meyerowitz, Joel.
(New York): TIMES BOOKS, published in association with Floyd A. Yearout, (1985).
Price: $150.00
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BEACON HILL: A Local Poem, Historic and Descriptive. Book I
M[orton], S[arah Wentworth].
Boston: Printed by Manning & Loring for the Author, 1797.
Price: $5,500.00
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First edition. 4to: 11 x 8-1/2", 55pp; photographic wrappers (perfectbound). Illustrated with black and white and color photographs by Bea Nettles. Slight crease to lower fore-tip front cover. Near fine. Bea Nettles has explored and created experimental imagery through photography, participating in exhibits at the Museum of Modern Art (such as their 1970 "Photography into Sculpture"), held workshops and lectured. Here she explains various "photo media processes": pinhole cameras; Xerography; cyanotypes; Van Dyke Brown painting; and Kwik Print.
BREAKING THE RULES A Photo Media Cookbook
Nettles, Bea.
(Rochester, NY: Inky Press Productions, 1977).
Price: $65.00
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Thick 8vo, 528pp; dark red cloth with gilded label at front and spine and elaborate embossing in blind at front and spine; floral endpapers. Title page printed in blue ink. Decorative initial caps, vignettes and full-page illustrations. Frontispiece portrait of the author. Front hinge a little strained; elaborate ownership signature at a front blank; some foxing to edges. Mild overall use to binding with tips and corners somewhat rubbed; rear panel shows staining and the small remnant of a label (?). About very good. The contents are organized into "Women in the Business World" and "Women in the Literary World", the latter includes popular poems and prose pieces such as Lucy Larcom's "Hannah Binding Shoes" and Elizabeth Allen's "Rock Me to Sleep". Brief biographical sketches accompany many of the selections. "Women in the Business World" offers chapters on "Woman's Work"; "Wages in New York and Elsewhere"; "The Profession of Literature"; "The Profession of Journalism"; "The Profession of Law"; "Government Clerks"; "Women of Enterprise"; "The Profession of Telegraphy"; "Lady Canvassers"; "Raising Poultry"; and "Keeping Boarders" among other topics. Mrs. Rayne writes in her prefatory note that some five decades earlier, Harriet Martineau reported while visiting Massachusetts that only seven professions were open to women. In WHAT CAN A WOMAN DO, Mrs. Rayne sets out to "illustrate the many employments given, by facts and curious incidents gathered from various sources and from personal observation".
WHAT CAN A WOMAN DO; Or, Her Position in the Business and Literary World
Rayne, Mrs. M[artha] L[ouise].
Detroit, Mich. Cincinnati, O. St. Louis, Mo.: F.B. Dickerson & Co., 1885.
Price: $100.00
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First edition. 16mo, 53pp; + Appendix (pp. 55-99); olive green cloth stamped in gilt front and spine. Mild spotting front cover; tips and spinal ends lightly worn. Dampstaining at lower fore-edge and at upper foretip affects a number of text pages. Good+. The brainchild of reformer and suffragist Caroline Severance (1820-1914), the New England Woman's Club was established in February 1868 by Severance with Lucy Stone, Julia Ward Howe, Abby May and others of the New England Woman Suffrage Association. The club movement was a vital part of women's efforts to empower themselves; as a spearhead of that movement, the New England Women's Club was one of the most effective and influential. A valuable primary source with information on those members of the club, addresses on different subjects made to the club both by club members and non-club members. The former included Henry James, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Kate Field, James T. Fields and numerous other 19th c. luminaries. AMERICAN WOMEN'S HISTORY, pp. 84-86. NAW II, 227-228; III 265-267. TIMELINES OF AMERICAN WOMEN'S HISTORY, p. 177.
HISTORY OF THE NEW ENGLAND WOMEN'S CLUB
Sprague, Julia A.
Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1894.
Price: $75.00
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MOONLIGHT SCHOOLS
Stewart, Cora Wilson.
New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, (1922).
Price: $350.00
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First edition. 16mo, 39pp; dark green wove cloth stamped in white with title, author and profile of Abraham Lincoln within a rondel. Illustrated with color frontispiece and four black-and-white illustrations by Blendom Campbell. Small bookseller’s ticket rear pastedown. Ida Tarbell, best known for her groundbreaking two-volume study on the Standard Oil Company, published a series of articles on Abraham Lincoln which were collected in 1900 as THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. It was a series which considerably enhanced McClure's circulation and Tarbell's reputation. Fascinated by her subject, Tarbell went on the write seven more books on the martyred president, including several for younger readers, such as this one. She took her title for this little book from the Civil War song "Father Abraham" and her focus is on Lincoln's concern for the common man and for the common soldier who fought the war. NAW III, p.428-429.
FATHER ABRAHAM
Tarbell, Ida M[inerva].
New York: Moffat, Yard and Company, 1909.
Price: $75.00
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First illustrated edition. Small 4to (10-1/4 x 8-3/8"), 87pp; highly embossed red cloth, central medallion at front cover of a basket of flowers stamped in gold, green and touches in blue (medallion in blind at rear panel); title with elaborate ornamentation stamped in gold at the spine; pale yellow endpapers. A.e.g. Presentation page (unused), title page, and seven full page plates, with tissue-guards, embellished in watercolor by Ann Smith. Text pages framed with thin rules with highly decorated corners. Scattered foxing, generally mild, throughout text, a very little affecting plates; plates a touch age-toned. Ends and tips a little rubbed. The binding is firm, bright and pleasing; the illustrations very fresh to the eye. Very good. Elizabeth Washington Gamble Wirt (1784-1857), raised in Richmond, Virginia, married William Wirt in 1802. Cephas Thompson painted family portraits ca. 1809-1810; that of Elizabeth Wirt is now at the National Portrait Gallery. In 1829 Lucas published her manuscript which collected apt poetic quotations about flowers. Its popularity was such that the publisher issued successive fresh printings and then in 1837 this handsome illustrated edition. The text includes, "Structure of Plants"; "Flowers"; "Sketch of the Life of Linnaeus"; "Flora's Dictionary", an alphabetical list of flowers, plants and trees, citing the Latin as well as common name, its floral meaning, with four or five extracts from Horace to Byron; "Notes", which record appropriate botanical information and additional literary extracts for each; an "Explanation of Botanical Terms Used in Flora's Dictionary"; "Definition of the Specific Names of the Flowers Used in Flora's Dictionary"; "Dedication of Flowers" (a floral calendar); and, "Index". Reese points out that FLORA'S DICTIONARY "is a pioneering example of the type, issued by the publisher of many early books with color". Reese, STAMPED WITH A NATIONAL CHARACTER: Nineteenth century American Color Plate Books, no. 52. Sabin 104868.
FLORA'S DICTIONARY
Wirt, Mrs. E[lizabeth] W[ashington].
Baltimore: Fielding Lucas, Jr., [1837].
Price: $2,500.00
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Authors' game featuring Louisa May Alcott, George Bancroft and 16 other popular 19th century authors with original instructions. Box: 6-1/4 x 4-3/8", red and silver paper over cardboard; color lithograph with portrait of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow mounted to front of box. 18 cards with portraits of the authors, delicately shaded, with elaborate borders bearing symbols associated with writing (an inkwell, pen, book, manuscript scroll, etc.) 18 title cards with a scroll bearing an author's name and three titles, a cherub with pen in hand as though just having written these out. At reverse of both, in blue, is a sunburst about a circle within which sits a star framing the letter "A". Overall wear to box with loss of paper at its corners (top and bottom). Cards show some age-toning. With "Directions for Playing Improved Star Authors. Single Pack. B": Small pamphlet: 4-1/4 x 3-1/8"; 8 pp; self-wrappers (stapled). Considerable foxing to outer pages (p .<1> and p. 8), and p. 5, with offsetting to p. 4. About very good. The authors: Louisa May Alcott; Isabella M. Alden; George Bancroft; Charlotte Bronte; Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Frances Hodgson Burnett; Robert Burns; William Wilkie Collins; Mary Ann Evans; Nathaniel Hawthorne; Felicia Hemans; Jean Ingelow; Elizabeth Stuart Phelps; William H. Prescott; Sam'l Rogers; Harriet Beecher Stowe; William M. Thackeray; and, Celia Thaxter. It is interesting to note that 11 of the 18 authors are women and that children's writers, poets and historians, as well as novelists, are represented. Also interesting are the titles cited for each author. The three titles cited for "George Elliott" [sic] are ADAM BEDE, ROMOLA and DANIEL DERONDA, for instance, rather than MIDDLEMARCH, SILAS MARNER or MILL ON THE FLOSS. which we might more immediately associate with Eliot. The directions describe three different games that can be played with the cards provided: 1. The ordinary game of Authors; 2. The star system of Authors; and, 3. A New Literary Game of Authors. Altogether the cards list 54 titles. As the directions conclude: "The method of calling [a title] presupposes more or less knowledge of the titles of the fifty-four Works enumerated on the cards, and will certainly make the players familiar with them". OCLC records a holding at the University of Virginia.
[Authors' Games] THE NEW IMPROVED GAME OF STAR AUTHORS Game B
[19th Century Literature],
New York: McLoughlin Bros., ca. 1888].
Price: $225.00
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With 52 cards housed in their original box with game rules present. Card game: box, 3-3/4 x 2-3/4"; cards, 3-1/2 x 2-1/2", cardboard box covered with glazed dark red paper printed in deep green at the lid; black and white portrait of the author within an oval surrounded by deep red decorative devices at the recto and pictorial design of a boy and girl with school books in red and light green at verso. Game rules mounted to inside of lid. An extra card advertising "New Games" present. Cards show light touches of use - a little dusty with an occasional crease to a corner. The box is worn with lid's corners separated and edges rubbed; pencil ownership notation at the bottom of the box. About very good. In PLAY YOUR CARDS, the catalogue which accompanied the exhibition of his card collection at the Bruce Museum, Stuart Kaplan notes that G. M. Whipple & A. A. Smith of Salem, Massachusetts issued the first author card game in 1861. The games gained in popularity as makers printed color lithograph boxes and added portraits to author cards. Game companies, of course, rung many changes upon the theme of author games. This one is unusual for targeting younger readers and for highlighting authors likely familiar to them. The authors, by suit: Louisa May Alcott; William T. Adams; Mrs. Adeline D. T. Whitney; Eugene Field; Isabella MacDonald Alden; John Townsend Trowbridge; Frances Hodgson Burnett; James Whitcomb Riley; Sarah Orne Jewett; Charles Austin Fosdick; Rebecca Sophia Clarke; Horatio Alger, Jr.; and, Mary Mapes Dodge. Each card prints the author's dates and four titles. Louisa May Alcott's card, for instance, mentions AN OLD-FASHIONED GIRL, JO'S BOYS, LITTLE WOMEN and EIGHT COUSINS. We recently had a variation of this game, issued the same year, with each card noting three rather than four titles by each author and the authors included differing. This variation may succeed. OCLC notes that the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Indiana University hold the game. The Marion S. Carson Collection at the Library of Congress also has the game, originally packaged with 12 others. Kaplan, pp. 5-7, 69-72.
Card Game: YOUNG FOLKS FAVORITE AUTHORS No. 1120
[Alcott, Louisa May, et al.] The Fireside Game Co.
Cincinnati: The Fireside Game Co., 1897.
Price: $200.00
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First printing. 16mo, 43-62pp; buff beige wrappers printed in black and vermilion. A discussion of contemporary bookplate designs and their designers with illustrations. Among the designers highlighted: Jay Chambers, Homer W. Colby, William Edgar Fisher, Elizabeth Hollowell, Mrs. Annie B. Hooper, Theodore Hapgood et al. Fragile wrappers almost detached; 1/2" triangular piece lacking bottom tip rear panel. An interesting source on turn-of-the-century bookplates and their artists.
"Recent American Ex Libris" THE CORNHILL BOOKLET
[Bookplates] Stone, Wilbur Macey.
Boston: Alfred Bartlett, September, 1901.
Price: $35.00
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Postcard: 4 x 5-13/16", printed dark green and light green stiff stock. At the verso is printed a divided back with room for an address at the right and "I support ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, and I will only support legislators who vote "YES". Slight fading. Near fine. The reverse calls for a 12 cent stamp for the postcard, a rate only in effect from March - November, 1981. The ERA amendment gains Senate approval in 1972, but attached is a seven-year time limit for ratification devised by Senator Sam Ervin and Representative Emanuel Celler. When the amendment fails to garner the necessary number of states by 1979, NOW and other ERA supporters urge an extension. The House and the Senate set a new deadline of June 30, 1982. If supporters hoped the extension would place fresh pressure on reluctant state legislators to ratify the amendment, such optimism proved unjustified. When Ronald Reagan took office in January of 1981, he became the first president to oppose an ERA amendment. The political climate for the amendment had chilled. This postcard reflects the growing urgency among ERA supporters to achieve state ratification within the brief window open to them.
Postcard: "EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT YES!"
[ERA],
[NP: , ca. 1981].
Price: $35.00
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