AMERICAN

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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.
£400.00

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'.

Remembering Henry Miller: A Collage. A Henry Miller Centenary Celebration. Script compiled and arranged by Francine Parker.

Author: 
Francine Parker, editor [Henry Miller]
Publication details: 
October 26, 1991. Lenart Auditorium, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA. A program of UCLA Extension's Department of Humanities, Sciences, and Social Sciences.
£450.00

Jackson/Ashley A272. Unpublished. 43 pages in A4 (unpaginated title and pages 1-42). Perfect bound with black cloth spine in light-green wraps with title duplicated on front wrap. Very good, with top corner of front wrap slightly dogeared. With four photocopied A4 pages of typescript loosely inserted: the first carrying 'The Naked Tongue' by Diane Miller; the second 'Religious Views of Life'; the third, headed 'Remembering Henry Miller: A Collage', giving details of cast and crew; the fourth headed 'Celebrating Henry Miller: A Collage includes selections from the following:'. Scarce.

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.

Autograph Signature ('Charlotte Cushman'), with quotation.

Author: 
Charlotte Cushman [Charlotte Saunders Cushman] (1816-1876), American actress
Publication details: 
4 April 1846; Dublin.
£35.00

On one side of a piece of green paper, 8 x 15.5 cm. Aged and spotted, and with traces of glue and paper from mount still adhering. Central closed tear (not affecting text) caused by removal from mount. In Cushman's florid hand, with the signature roughly 3.5 x 9 cm. Reads ' "Oh! I am fortunes fool!" | Charlotte Cushman | Dublin April 4th. 1846.'

Upwards of 30 Autograph Letters Signed, Manuscript Poems, Indentures and Certificates relating to the family of Moses Tryon of Hartford, Connecticut.

Author: 
Tryon Papers
Publication details: 
Between 1797 and 1902; from New York State and other places.
£400.00

An interesting collection of papers relating to the Tryon family, moneyed Swedenborgians from New York State, originally arranged - apparently by Francis Tryon's granddaughter Juliet (Lowrey) Baggallay - in seven parts. Most items are 8vo, with several 4to and some 16mo. Condition is good unless otherwise stated. All items have a small hole in the top left-hand corner for grouping together. Part 1 consists of one letter, 12 June 1797, from Moses Tryon (1750-1817) to Captain Nathan Sage ('his brother's father-in-law' according to an accompanying note).

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.

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.

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.

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.'

Anonymous pamphlet [attributed in manuscript on cover to Carter] entitled 'Charles Scribner's Sons, 23, Bedford Square, London'. Containing four photographs of the firm's new London premises.

Author: 
Charles Scribner's Sons, booksellers and publishers of New York and London [Charles Kingsley; John Carter; architecture; Bedford Square]
Publication details: 
Charles Scribner's Sons. 'New York, July, 1931.' ['The Scribner Press, 311-319 West 43d Street, New York.]
£45.00

8vo: 4 pp, surrounding a bifolium carrying 4 pp of photographs. Stitched. Printed on laid paper and nicely produced. Lightly creased, and with the covers grubby and lightly-spotted. Begins 'CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS, their London house having outgrown its quarters in Regent Street, have moved to twenty-three Bedford Square where they are occupying one of the old Adam houses, the lease of which they have purchased from the Bedford estate.' The four photographs consist of an exterior view, the 'Manager's office', 'One of the Adam fireplaces' and 'Entrance hall'.

Composure in Death. A Discourse, delivered in the Orphan Asylum, New-York, On the Death of Mrs. Sarah Hoffman, First Directress of the Institution, who departed this life, July 30, 1821, aged 79 years.

Author: 
John Stanford, A.M. [Mrs Sarah Hoffman, first directress of the Orphan Asylum, New York; the Widows' Society]
Publication details: 
[1821.] New-York: Published for the Benefit of the Orphan Asylum. Sold by T. & J. Swords, No. 90 Pearl-street; Bliss & White, No. 128 Broadway; the Methodist Book-store; the Orphan Asylum, Greenwich. [E. Conrad, Printer, 4 Frankfort-street.]
£56.00

8vo: 47 pp. Disbound. A tight copy, with the text clear and complete, on aged paper with light waterstaining throughout. The title continues: 'To which are added, a sketch of her benevolent exertions in favour of the widow and the orphan. - Comprising the history of the Widows' Society, and the Orphan Asylum; together with the last scenes of her pious life.' WorldCat reveals eighteen copies in American libraries, but scarce in Europe: no copy on COPAC (microfiche at University of Scotland).

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'.

Part of Letter to the Secretary of the Athenaeum Club, London, J.C. Webster.

Author: 
Charles Sumner, American statesman.
Publication details: 
No place or date
£38.00

Part of a letter, 11 x 5.5cm, stained but surviving text clear,as follows: (recto) "of the Athenaeum [Club] for a period of two months. | J.E. Webster Esq.". (verso) I have the honor to be, | Sir, | Your obedient servant, | Charles Sumner."

Part of an Autograph Letter Signed "W.F. Williams" to J.C. Webster, [Secretary of The Athenaeum Club, London].

Author: 
Sir William Fenwick Williams [W.F. Williams], MP, "The Hero of Kars", C in C North America during Civil War.
Publication details: 
No place or date
£38.00

Part of letter,14.5 x 10cm, staining but text clear as follows: (recto) "the receipt of your letter of the 10th Inst and to inform you that I have taken the steps necessary | J,C. Webster Esq."; (verso) "I have the honor to ["be" has been cut off] | Your obt. Servant ! WF Williams". The verso is docketed with information about Williams (MP, Kars).

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.

Catalogue of a Valuable and Interesting Collection of Books formed by a Prominent American Playwright, [i.e. Daly] [...] relating to the Drama [...] Original Drawings. Including [...] A Very Valuable Series by W. Blake, Etc., Etc.

Author: 
[John Augustin Daly (1838-99), American playwright] [J. W. Bouton; Geo. A. Leavitt & Co., Auctioneers; William Blake; John Camden Hotten]
Publication details: 
No date [1878]; 'GEO. A. LEAVITT & CO., Auctioneers, Clinton Hall, New York.'
£75.00

Octavo: viii + 201 pages. Good and tight, on aged high-acidity paper, with some chipping and a little light staining at foot. A few pencil marks. In original printed grubby and chipped wraps cloth-taped to spine. Front wrap annotated in pencil. Four-page introduction entitled 'A PLAYWRIGHT'S WORKING LIBRARY.' Even considering the importance and interest of the theatrical collection, the high point is undoubtedly item 102: 'BLAKE, WILLIAM. ORIGINAL DRAWINGS IN WATER COLOURS and INDIA INK by the celebrated WILLIAM BLAKE (Pictor Ignotus).

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.

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