
MAINE
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Opposing Satan's Servants with
a Lot of Slogging
(An Association with KITTERY). Fernald, Mark. Life of Elder Mark Fernald, written by himself. Newburyport: Geo. Moore Payne & D.B. Pike; Philadelphia: Christian General Book Concern (pr. by William H. Huse), 1852. 12mo (19.6 cm, 7.7"). Frontis., 405, [1] pp.
$150.00
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First edition: Composed in diary-like fashion by a Free Will Baptist (1784–1851) who proselytized throughout New England, this autobiography largely focuses on where, when, and how Fernald's preaching was conducted. The determined, hardworking author was particularly opposed to drinking and dancing, and returns frequently to those subjects.
The work opens with an introduction from the publishers, who dedicated the Life to the members of the First Christian Church and Society of Kittery, ME.
The frontispiece portrait of Fernald was engraved by John Sartain, after a daguerrotype.
Binding: Publisher's textured black cloth, covers framed in blind rules and with foliate designs surrounding central gilt-stamped floral motifs on both boards. Spine gilt extra, all edges gilt.
Bound as above; spine extremities and corners rubbed, cloth showing small split starting at foot of front joint (hinge holding). Mild foxing to margins of frontispiece, with offsetting to title-page from guard leaf; two pages with small section of offsetting from now-absent laid-in item; pages otherwise clean.
A solid, worthwhile copy with its gilt shining bright and crisp. (38618)
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A Well-Meaning but
Not Very High-Rising MUSE
Hill, Elizabeth Chase. Gleanings: Girlhood and womanhood. Concord, NH: Republican Press Association, 1887. 4to (19.2 cm, 7.5"). Frontis., [2], 76, [2] pp.
$280.00
Uncommon, posthumously printed writings from Mrs. John M. Hill, a Concord, NH, resident who grew up in South Berwick, Maine (the first permanent settlement in that state) and attended school in Exeter, NH. The work was
privately printed as a holiday gift for friends of the author; the poems and short pieces display intelligence, but not much by way of polished craft — unsurprising given that most of them were written during Hill’s adolescence. One unfinished poem ends abruptly with “. . . my Muse would plume her wing, / And higher as she rises sweeter sing — ”; the note beneath humorously reads “Muse did n’t get any further up that trip” (p. 25).
Provenance: Front pastedown with bookplate of Burton W.F. Trafton, Jr.’s library at Old Fields in South Berwick, ME; pastedown also with binder’s ticket from Crawford & Stockbridge of Concord, NH. Front fly-leaf with inked gift inscription dated Christmas, 1887.
Publisher’s brown cloth, front cover with gilt-stamped title and dark brown–stamped decorative bands, bottom band labelled “Christmas 1887"; corners and spine extremities rubbed, binding showing very little wear otherwise. First two signatures with sewing loosening; pages very slightly age-toned but otherwise clean. (13883)

An American Boy Makes Good, Sees Changes — His Life Through His Diaries
Sampson, George G. Manuscript on paper, in English: Collection of 26 diaries. Maine, Worcester, New York City: 1886–1912. 32mo to 16mo (4" x 2.5" to 6" x 2.75"). 26 vols.
$1700.00
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George Sampson was an ordinary New England farm boy by birth, whose diaries here reflect his personal experience of two decades-plus of sometimes sweeping change in ordinary American life as well as his own transformation from a rural schoolboy into a professional man whose life is urban. As his 26 years of record-keeping begin in 1886, George is in Franklin County, ME, with extended family all around and many named neighbors; the diaries for many years show us a large, hardworking household whose members, all of them, commit themselves day after day (and year after year) to the unending, relentless, and remarkably various array of chores required by the propagation, planting, cultivation, reaping, and sale of market crops along with what seems to be extensive mixed animal husbandry — not to mention what was required simply to maintain and improve an array of farm properties including home gardens, orchards, woodlots, hayfields, and an additional acreage nearby used primarily for large-animal care.
The meticulously recorded, sometimes “how-to” detail on these activities can be surprisingly exhausting even to read, even as it is fascinating, informative, and impressive.
Yet when George is young he also records
plentiful times of fun and play; and as he gets older he records enjoyment of a full array of social, community, and church occasions — including, once, a circus, and eventually incorporating concerts, picnics, “sociables,” an occasional lecture, and attendance at a great many “lodge meetings.”
By 1893, our diarist has become serious about his studies, leaving home for the first time to attend school; by 1898, he is also teaching; and 1901 finds him at Bates College, where he works as hard intellectually as at home he had done bodily, and where he works in the dining hall to pay for his board. But, again, he records a full, fully enjoyed, and
fully detailed palette of recreations — e.g., glee club activities and attendance at football games; lectures and concerts; suppers and card parties with friends; lawn parties, dances, and candy pulls; and theater and concert trips. (
Oh, and dating. )
George graduates from Bates in 1905 and, by the final diary in 1912, he is an accomplished secondary-school physics teacher in Worcester, MA, with a master’s degree from Clark University, and he is taking additional (presumably doctoral) courses at Columbia University during a teaching sabbatical.
Each volume here opens with a printed section offering calendars, postal rates, almanac facts, etc.; usually, George has used the back pages for personal accounting, addresses of friends, and other memoranda. For space reasons, his entries must be laconic, but he has filled most space there is. Only the final few diaries have significant unused sections.
A long descriptive analysis is available on request.
Virtually all diaries are bound in leather or leatherette, a few with the lower third of the rear covers removed neatly, and the “set” lacking only the volume for 1906. Some volumes are written in pencil, later ones mostly in ink, in a legible hand.
Very good. (39290)
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A Cookbook Collector's Own
PERSONAL Recipe Collection
Schofield, Eloise. Manuscript on paper, in English. U.S.: [1950s–60s]. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). 59–181, [1] pp.; illus.
$450.00
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A remarkable culinary florilegium compiled by prominent cookbook collector Eloise Schofield. Recorded mostly by hand on
122 well-filled pages of a ledger book, these 19th- and 20th-century recipes cover a very wide range, opening with an “Orange Pie” recipe given in verse and including local specialties such as fried eel from Provincetown, “State of Maine Mincemeat,” and Nantucket corn pudding; quirky historical dishes and home remedies (for earache, weeping eyes, burns, etc.), often with their sources and dates attributed; and more general everyday items, passed on by family members and friends (“My mother's Harlequin Cake”). Annotations offer Schofield's thoughts and recollections: “This isn't at all bad”; “Bob's grandmother always had it [lemon conserve] on hand”; “Here is a very old recipe — waste not want not”; “My father loved to eat; he always lifted each cover off the pots every evening to see what was cooking”).
Interspersed among the recipes are clippings and artwork affixed to the pages, including an advertisement for the “Anna Held” carnation petticoat for sale by John Wanamaker, as well as a number of other color-printed or black and white advertisements; several cat photos taken from periodicals or other sources; “Hints for Housekeepers,” from an 1865 magazine; a recipe for “Gertie's Christmas Cake,” written in Schofield's hand on an old-fashioned holiday greeting card; a color reproduction of a portion of a 1799 embroidery sampler; a recipe for “Spong Cake” in an older hand, labelled by Schofield “Found in an 1887 Cook Book”; ETC.
Schofield's delight in culinary history is clear on every page — for instance, “Tripe was a favorite around 1900 and the Parker House became famous for its tripe besides the rolls. Here is a Tripe Batter highly recommended by an old lady” (p. 114).
Contemporary half roan and marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; binding cocked, worn and scuffed overall, spine leather split and chipping. Pp. 1–58 excised, very likely having been the ledger's contents before repurposing; gutter of first signature present reinforced some time ago. Pages age-toned with scattered smudging and offsetting. A gift of densely packed pleasure in terms of both aesthetics and domestic content, this is
the most endearing example of such a book that we have ever seen. (41503)
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Kennebunkport Church Cookery
Village Baptist Church (Kennebunkport, ME). Ladies' Guild. Cook book. Kennebunkport, ME: Published by Village Baptist Church Kennebunkport Maine [at the Press of Arundel], [1948]. 8vo (23 cm, 9"). 56, [24 (adv.)] pp. (some pagination out of sequence).
$75.00
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Uncommon fund-raising cookbook, printed in “an edition of 1000 from the press of Arundel for the Village Baptist Church”; date of publication is supplied by the New York Public Library. This copy includes a number of laid-in manuscript and printed recipes, including a handwritten recipe for cranberry coffee cake, an advertising item from Swanson with recipes for “Oriental Chicken” and other dishes, a recipe pamphlet from Purity Supreme, instructions for the “Energy Miser Original Potato Baker,” a Dover Farms whipped topping lid with recipe for apple crisp, an envelope with handwritten notes on rhubarb bread (with the original letter still inside, acknowledging the recipient for donating equipment to a project known as “Camp Waban for Retarded Citizens”), etc.
WorldCat locates only one library reporting ownership (NYPL).
Not in Brown, Culinary Americana. Publisher's printed yellow paper wrappers, stapled as issued; spine and edges rubbed, moderately worn overall, front wrapper with scuff and old crease, back wrapper with small spots of staining. Inside a few scattered spots only, pages mostly clean.
Seldom-seen ephemeral Maine church cookery, this example with extra interest for its lay-ins. (38089)
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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)
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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)
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