
AMERICANA
AFTER 1820
A-B Bibles C D-E F-G H I-K
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A
PITTSBURGH Woman's Poetry
Wade, A. Annie Rogers. The poetical works of A. Annie Wade. Allegheny, PA: [Privately printed], 1895. 8vo. Frontis., 227 pp.
$150.00
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Mrs. Wade died in 1893. She was born in New Hampshire and moved to Pittsburgh after marrying a businessman of that city; a prominent social figure there, she was also a trained singer and composed several songs published during her lifetime. Her loving husband compiled and published this volume of her poetry “for her friends.”
We locate only five libraries (three in Pittsbugh) reporting ownership of the work.
Provenance: Inscribed to Mrs. John R. McCune by the writer of the volume's biographical sketch of the author, “Frank H. Wade, M.D.,” and his wife.
Publisher's white cloth elaborately stamped in gold, all edges gilt; binding and text both remarkably clean and fresh. (29567)

Only the Second Known Copy?
Waterville College. Bell-a! Horrid-a bell-a! Inaugural ceremonies at the coronation of John Tupper Champlin. [Maine?]: No publisher/printer, 1853. 8vo (23 cm; 9") 4 pp.
$425.00
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College wit and humor delivered to the not unsuspecting audience on Wednesday, April 6th, 1853. “The performance will commence with a grand review of all the available force of the institution, under the immediate inspection of the emperor. At precisely 7 o'clock the rabble will move in the following order.”
The caption title reads: “Smith, with a copy of the 'Fugitive Slave Law,' eagerly inquiring the way to Canada.” The text printed within a wavy border.
WorldCat locates only the copy at the Library Company of Philadelphia, this being its deaccessioned duplicate.
Old folds, dust-soiled, other stains. Evidence of old stitching. A decent copy of a rarity. (38404)

A Poem Commemorating
Fifteen Lost Smokejumpers
(50 COPIES)
Weil, James L. Mann Gulch. New York: Kelly Winterton Press, 2000. 12mo (19.1 cm; 7.5"). [5] ff.
$100.00
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This short poem remembering the smokejumpers who died in 1949 during the Mann Gulch fire was printed by the Kelly Winterton Press, an American press founded in 1978.
The edition was limited to 50 copies only.
The colophon notes that this text was printed from Bembo, Cleland Initial, and Sistina types on Niddegen paper.
Rose wrappers with black lettering on front; spine gently faded. Light pencilling on front endpaper. A simple yet elegant production. (36075)

“To Write or Speak the Epilogue after Any Great & Grand Drama Is
by No Means an Easy Task”
Whewell, William; Henry T. De la Beche; & Others. Lectures on the results of the Exhibition, delivered before the Society of Arts, Manufacturers, and Commerce, at the suggestion of H.R.H. Prince Albert, president of the society. Philadelphia: Reprinted by A. Hart, late Cary & Hart (Printed by T.K. & P.G. Collins), 1852. 12mo (17.9 cm; 7"). [2], 463 pp.
$150.00
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Twelve essays about the effects of
the Great Exhibition of 1851 on different industries written by experts in the field, including mining, agriculture, education, engineering, and more.
Provenance: From the German Society of Philadelphia (properly released) with bookplate on front pastedown and its 19th-century handwritten shelfmark on endpaper.
Publisher's red textured cloth with title and ALL authors' names gilt-lettered on spine; covers double-ruled in blind, gilt circlet surrounding title on front cover, yellow endpapers with printed publisher's advertisements; binding gently rubbed and lightly soiled, spine pulled at top with loss of cloth and text moderately cocked. Marked as above, interior clean. (36185)

The Unlucky Man, the Christmas Sing, & the Friend of Cats
Wilkins, Mary. The people of our neighborhood. Philadelphia: Curtis Pub. Co.; New York: Doubleday & McClure Co., (1898). 32mo (15.2 cm; 6"). viii, 161, [1] pp.
$45.00
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A collection of sketches depicting life in New England. Mary Wilkins, known for portraying the frustrating lives within that region's villages, gives each unique character a defining characteristic; e.g., Timothy Sampson is “The Wise Man,” Margaret Snell is “The Village Runaway,” and Amanda Todd is “The Friend of Cats.”
Alice Barber Stephens, an American painter and engraver whose work appeared in Harper's and the Ladies' Home Journal, provides the illustrations, being
13 plates throughout the text and a frontispiece (with tissue guard) of Wilkins.
Vol. III of the Ladies' Home Journal Library of Fiction.
Provenance: On front free endpaper, the signature of Katherine Phinprose(?).
Wright, III, 2038. Publisher's textured green cloth with gilt lettering to spine and front board; lighter green-stamped decoration to front board and spine; fore-edge of pages untrimmed. Extremities rubbed. Small tear of paper on front pastedown; gutter crack at series list and p. 114.
A nice little volume combining the work of two prominent women. (37815)

H.D., Hemingway, Stein, Marianne Moore, & So Many Others Were His FRIENDS
Williams, William Carlos. The autobiography of William Carlos Williams. New York: Random House, © 1951. 8vo (21.5 cm; 8.5"). xiv, 402 pp.
$450.00
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Signed copy (on the front free endpaper) of the first edition, first printing of Williams' account of his life, friendships, and accomplishments.
Publisher's cloth, hinge (inside) cracked; dust jacket rubbed and crinkled along edges with pieces lost along top and bottom edges especially at spine. Unprice-clipped. VG/G++. (33449)

Willis
“Pitched His Tent”
by the
Susquehanna
River
Willis,
Nathaniel Parker. A l'abri, or, The tent
pitch'd. New York: Samuel Colman (pr. by Scatcherd & Adams), 1839. 12mo
(19.2 cm, 7.6"). 172, 12 (adv.) pp.
[SOLD]
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First edition of this series of lighthearted letters written in
and about the valley of the Susquehanna, near Owego, New York. An author of
notable but ephemeral fame, Willis came from a talented family: His grandfather
published newspapers in both the north and south of the U.S., his father founded
the Youth's Companion (the first newspaper specifically for children),
his sister enjoyed much literary success under the pen name Fanny Fern, and
his brother Richard Stolls Willis was a music critic and composer known for
hymns including
“It Came upon the Midnight Clear.”
Willis himself was the founder of the magazine that became the Home Journal,
and was celebrated in his day for his essays and travel writings as well as
several collections of his journalistic work. The Cambridge History of
American Literature calls him the “prince of magazinists,”
and remarks on “the evanescent sparkle and glancing brilliance”
of A L'abri, later known as Letters from under a Bridge. These
charming, witty essays touch on Willis's Yale education (and its lack of practical
application!); fishing; a dinner with Lady Blessington, Benjamin Disraeli,
Count D'Orsay, and Lord Durham; the possibility of local railroad construction
to connect the Hudson with Lake Erie; the relationship of American to British
literature, etc. Whatever the ostensible topics of the individual letters,
each touches in affectionate and amusing fashion on some aspect of life in
the Susquehanna region.
A publishing practice, demonstrated: Bound
in at the back of this volume are yellow printed paper wrappers for John
Smith's Letters, and the title-page and preface for Fireside Education
— both items published by Colman in the same year as the present work.
BAL 22752 (spine label in first state, cloth described
as “Brown S cloth “); American Imprints 59260; Fearing,
Check List of Books on Angling, Fishing, Fisheries, Fish-Culture, etc.,
135; Sabin 104504. On Willis, see: Cambridge History of American Literature
online. Publisher's brown cloth embossed with floret and dash pattern,
spine with printed paper label; corners rubbed, and spine cloth chipped with
paper label chipped and darkened. Front free endpaper with early pencilled
ownership inscription. Foxing throughout; occasional pencilled marginalia
and marks of emphasis. (25806)

Deluxe Comedic Production, Deluxe Binding
Wills, William Henry, ed. Poets' wit and humour. New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1861. 8vo (22.8 cm, 9"). [8], 278, [1] pp.; illus.
$975.00
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First U.S. edition: “Illustrated with
one
hundred engravings from drawings by Charles Bennett and George
H. Thomas.” The work was edited by a friend and collaborator of Charles
Dickens; from Chaucer to Swift to “Saint Anthony's Sermon to the Fishes,”
Wills's comic selections are delightfully entertaining, and their wood-engraved
illustrations equally amusing.
Binding:
Publisher's deluxe black calf, covers and spine elaborately embossed and stamped
in blind and gilt with central vignette of a cherub dressed as a jester and
playing a lyre. All edges gilt.
The
embossing plaque is signed with the designer's initials: “R.D.”
Robert Dudley. This is an English publisher's binding,
most likely done using the English sheets with an Appleton title-page.
This work is rarely found in the deluxe binding: The handsomely gilt-stamped
publisher's cloth is the norm.
NSTC 2W24418; Allibone 2762. For binding, see: Morris
& Levin, Art of Publisher's Bookbindings, 44. Binding as above,
showing minor wear to extremities and front cover vignette, original silk
bookmark detached and laid in. Volume slightly shaken with text block starting
to pull away from spine; this is the kind of volume that wants to do that,
and the reader will want to “cradle” it in hand — that done,
no worries. Front fly-leaf with early pencilled gift inscription and with
a Maine druggist's small ticket. Mild to moderate foxing.
Both
funny and decorative, in a publisher's binding that may fairly be called “DAZZLING.”
(26748)

American Women's Missions
Woman's Home Missionary Society. Woman's home missions [of the Methodist Episcopal Church]. Delaware, OH: Woman's Home Missionary Society, 1884–85. Folio (27.1 cm, 10.67"). 104, 144, 192 pp.
[SOLD]
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Collected here are the first three volumes of a monthly periodical dedicated to Methodist women's domestic missions — and their accompanying fundraising efforts — in the south and west of the U.S., running from Jan. 1884 through Dec. 1886. The Woman's Home Missionary Society was organized in 1880, and sent missionary teachers to
Mormon, Chinese, African-American, and Native American communities as well as assisting impoverished women and children. The present accounts of their labors include news of members' activities, uplifting readings, illustrated advertisements, and extensive writings on
the state of affairs in Utah and in Indian Territory.
Contemporary half oxblood morocco and pebbled cloth–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; minor shelfwear overall, spine and extremities unobtrusively refurbished. All page edges speckled red. Front pastedown with book manufacturer's ticket. Pages very slightly age-toned, otherwise clean and fresh.
Uncommon. (41345)

“Freedom, Fellowship & Character in Religion”
Woolley, Celia Parker. The ideal Unitarian church. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Co., 1889. 8vo (23.2 cm, 9.125"). 12 pp.
$90.00
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A lecture “read before the Western Unitarian conference at Chicago, May 16, 1889.” American novelist, feminist, and antiracism activist Woolley (1848–1918), a Unitarian minister who was born in Ohio and raised in Michigan before settling in Chicago, dedicated her life to integration and egalitarianism, opening membership in the Chicago Women's Club to African Americans and founding the Frederick Douglass Center on the South Side among other efforts on behalf of human rights.
This is vol. I, no. 12 of the Unity Mission subscription newsletter.
Publisher's printed wrappers with the title-page as the front and the final leaf of text as the back wrapper; “no. 32" on front in pencil. A few small specks, interior otherwise clean. (39394)

The Golden Pavilion of Jehol, Etc.
(World's Fair). Four octagonal metallic foil trivets from the
Chicago Century of Progress fair. [Chicago: 1933]. Largest: 16.6 x 24.7 cm; smallest: 13.5 x 13.5 cm.
$45.00
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Set of four aluminum-esque foil-covered trivets from Chicago's second World's Fair, “A Century of Progress.” In sculpted relief, all four offer
detailed, Art Deco-inflected scenes that depict buildings from the Fair, with three having their main designs within the same framework of additional architectural elements and one featuring a frame of transportation devices: a covered wagon, two trains, an automobile, a blimp, an airplane, and a winged capsule possibly intended to be a spaceship.
Edges rubbed; smallest trivet with surface rubbed and lacking mounted backing.
A nice set of unusual World's Fair “souvenir” ephemera, CHICAGO division. (36816)

From Ape to Zebra
The young child's A, B, C; or, first book. New York: Samuel Wood & Sons, No. 261, Pearl-Street; Samuel S. Wood & Co. No. 212, Market Street, Baltimore, [ca. 1820]. Square 8vo (10.5 cm, 4.13"). 16 pp.
$300.00
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First published in 1806, this little abecedarium was
the first children's book ever published by Samuel Wood, whose work included “many thousands of children's religious, instructive, and nursery books.” (Rosenbach) The alphabet in this later edition is illustrated with
variations on the fine wood engravings of birds, animals, and objects included in the first, except for the portrait of Xerxes, which seems to have been a constant throughout the many editions. Alexander Anderson, America's preeminent wood engraver, is thought to have supplied the illustrations to the original edition.
The front wrapper wood-engraving on this copy shows three young boys playing with a spinning top, and the rear features a swarm of bees buzzing around a honey pot.
Provenance: From the children's book collection of Albert A. Howard, small booklabel ("AHA”) at rear.
Rosenbach, Children's, 596 ([c. 1820]); Shaw & Shoemaker 46904 ([1818?]); Pomeroy, Alexander Anderson, 203e. This ed. not in Welch. Publisher's printed paper wrappers with woodcuts, as above; wrappers foxed and leaves age-toned, not distressingly or weakening paper. Very little used, in good shape. (38483)

A Polyglot Dictionary of
American Indian Languages
Zeisberger, David. Zeisberger's Indian dictionary: English, German, Iroquois — The Onondaga, and Algonquin — The Delaware. Cambridge: John Wilson & Son, 1887. 4to (27.5 cm; 11"). v, [1 (blank), 236 pp.
[SOLD]
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“Printed from the Original Manuscript in Harvard University Library.” Zeisberger was an 18th-century Moravian missionary among the native Americans named in the title of this work. He left this polyglot dictionary in manuscript and it is
here printed for the first time. Edited by Eben Norton Horsford.
Sabin 106302n. Publisher's textured cloth in a brick color, hinges (inside) cracked; ex-library with a bookplate, no stamps. Clipping about this “quaint” dictionary affixed to a blank, with offsetting to endpaper verso opposite; interior clean. (31960)
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