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MAINE
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.
Click the images for enlargements.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)
For POST-1820 AMERICANA, 
For RELIGION, click here. For TEMPERANCE, click here. Our PUBLISHERS' BINDINGS GALLERY offers
A Well-Meaning but Not Very High-Rising MUSEHill, Elizabeth Chase. Gleanings: Girlhood and womanhood. Concord, NH: Republican Press Association, 1887. 4to (19.2 cm, 7.5"). Frontis., [2], 76, [2] pp.
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)
For POST-1820 AMERICANA, For more of WOMEN's interest, click here. For LITERATURE, click here.
“A is for Axe” . . . The picture alphabet; or child's A, B, C. Portland, ME: Bailey & Noyes, [not before 1860?]. 16mo (10.5 cm, 4.1"). 16 pp.; illus.
Click the images for enlargements.a small wood engraving and couplet for each letter of the alphabet. The firm was listed in extant Portland, ME, directories between 1860 and 1875. 
Axe, Bat, and, Comb through Xerxes, Youth, and Zebra. (41516)
For POST-1820 AMERICANA, For CHILDREN / EDUCATION, click here. For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here. For CHAPBOOKS, click here. For “GIFTABLES” — mostly $150
An American Boy Makes Good, Sees Changes — His Life Through His DiariesSampson, 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.
Click the images for enlargements.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.
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.” 
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)
For CHILDREN / EDUCATION, click here. For AGRICULTURE, click here. For COMMERCE / TRADE / For “HOW-TO,” click here! For MANUSCRIPTS, click here.
A Cookbook Collector's OwnPERSONAL Recipe CollectionSchofield, Eloise. Manuscript on paper, in English. U.S.: [1950s–60s]. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). 59–181, [1] pp.; illus.
Click the images for enlargements.
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”).
the most endearing example of such a book that we have ever seen. (41503)
For POST-1820 AMERICANA, For COOKERY, click here. For MANUSCRIPTS, click here. For COMMERCE / TRADE / For MEDICINE, click here. For more of WOMEN's interest, click here. For Books with SPECIAL
Kennebunkport Church CookeryVillage 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).
Click the images for enlargements.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)
For COOKERY, click here. For RELIGION, click here. For more of WOMEN's interest, click here.
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.
Click the image for an enlargement.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)
For COLLEGES/UNIVERSITIES, click here. For THEATER/THEATRE, click here.For HUMOR, click here. For more of CANADIAN interest, click here. For ABOLITION / BLACK HISTORY, click here. This also appears in the GENERAL
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.
Click the images for enlargements. 
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.
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 aMAINE
druggist's small ticket. Mild to moderate
foxing. Both
funny and decorative, in a publisher's binding that may fairly be called “DAZZLING.”
(26748)
For LITERATURE, click here. For ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click here. For FINE, ATTRACTIVE, & INTERESTING For “GIFTABLES” — mostly $150
For POST-1820 AMERICANA,
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