AMERICAN

Typed Note Signed by Carl Van Vechten to 'Miss Lucha', thanking her for a copy of the Gertrude Stein number of the Academic Observer.

Author: 
Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964), American author and literary executor of Gertrude Stein [Margaret Lucha; the Academic Observer]
Typed Note Signed by Carl Van Vechten
Publication details: 
15 April 1937; on Van Vechten's 101 Central Park West, New York, letterhead.
£150.00
Typed Note Signed by Carl Van Vechten

8vo, 1 p. Typed and signed in light-blue, beneath green letterhead, and with 'CARL VAN VECHTEN' 'watermark' at centre of page. Text clear and complete. On lightly aged paper, worn and dogeared at extremities. He thanks her for the copy of 'the Academic Observer (Gertrude Stein number) which intererested me so much that I am writing to ask if I may have another copy for a friend of mine, Please.' Autograph note explains that the 'friend' is one 'who also collects Steiniana'. Docketed in pencil on reverse: 'Miss Mallory | Keep this until I call - someday I will. | [signed] M. Lucha'.

Original typescript with manuscript corrections by Elbert Hubbard, regarding Tennyson's friendship with Arthur Hallam, and with a quotation from Whitman.

Author: 
Elbert Hubbard [Elbert Green Hubbard (1856-1915)] [Alfred Lord Tennyson; Arthur Hallam; Walt Whitman]
Original typescript with manuscript corrections by Elbert Hubbard
Publication details: 
Undated [c. 1910?].
£180.00
Original typescript with manuscript corrections by Elbert Hubbard

12mo, 3 pp, on separate loose leaves. Forty lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on browned paper. Laid out for printing, and with the page numbering 21 to 23 (from 12 to 14). Loosely inserted in a folder with 'Original Manuscript of Elbert Hubbard' printed on the front, which also carries two accession marks.

[sheet music] Letter to Freddy. For voice and piano. Words by Gertrude Stein. Music by Paul Bowles.

Author: 
Gertrude Stein; Paul Bowles
Letter to Freddy. For voice and piano. Words by Gertrude Stein.
Publication details: 
1946 (first separate printing). G. Shirmer, Inc. New York. ['Copyright, 1935, by New Music. Copyright assigned, 1946, to G. Shirmer, Inc.']
£50.00
Letter to Freddy. For voice and piano. Words by Gertrude Stein.

4to, 3 pp. Loose leaf inserted in bifolium. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Front page printed in black and red. Advertisements on reverse of last leaf.

[sheet music] Pigeons On The Grass Alas. Recitation and Air for Barytone. From the Opera Four Saints in Three Acts. Text by Gertrude Stein. Music by Virgil Thomson. As sung by Edward Mathews.

Author: 
Gertrude Stein; Virgil Thomson [Edward Mathews]
Stein, Pigeons On The Grass Alas.
Publication details: 
1935. J. Fischer & Bro., New York, N.Y. [Limited edition 'printed especially for the Berkshire School Musicale Association']
£120.00
Stein, Pigeons On The Grass Alas.

4to, [i] + 4 pp. On two loose bifoliums, in tan printed wraps. No. 73 of 110 copies (one of the hundred numbered copies and NOT one of the ten copies signed by author and composer). Limitation inside front wrap. Title-page states 'This arrangement is dedicated by the composer to the Berkshire School Musicale Association'. No copy on COPAC.

[sheet music] baby, baby, from "On Whitman Avenue". A Lullaby. [piano solo]

Author: 
Paul Bowles
Paul Bowles, baby, baby, from "On Whitman Avenue".
Publication details: 
1946. Mercury Music Corporation, New York, N.Y.
£35.00
Paul Bowles, baby, baby, from "On Whitman Avenue".

4to, 4 pp. Bifolium. In light-grey printed wraps with design by Lieberman printed in dark-grey and pink (price on front amended with stamp). Score on central two pages. Last page carries an advertisement for another of Bowles's piano pieces, and a short biographical notice, headed 'ABOUT THE COMPOSER' ('[...] He is best known as composer of music for the theatre. In this medium he has written incidental scores for the two Orson Welles productions: [...] Mr. Bowles has also done several film scores, and the music for two ballets commissioned by the American Ballet Caravan: [...]').

[sheet music] Carretera de Estepona (Highway to Estepona). Piano Solo.

Author: 
Paul Bowles
Paul Bowles, Carretera de Estepona
Publication details: 
1947. Contemporary Composers Series. Marks Edition, New York. [Copyright MCMXLVII by Edward B. Marks Music Corporation.]
£56.00
Paul Bowles, Carretera de Estepona

4to, 3 pp (paginated 3-7). Bifolium loose in grey wraps printed in red. Good, on lightly-aged paper with slight wear to spine.

[sheet music] Six Preludes for Piano.

Author: 
Paul Bowles
Paul Bowles, Six Preludes for Piano.
Publication details: 
1947. Mercury Music Corporation, New York, N.Y.
£28.00
Paul Bowles, Six Preludes for Piano.

4to, 12 pp. On six loose bifoliums. Good, on lightly-aged paper, with minor spotting on reverse of last leaf (page of advertisements).

[sheet music] Sonatina. For piano solo. Paul Bowles.

Author: 
Paul Bowles
Sonatina. For piano solo. Paul Bowles.
Publication details: 
1947. Elkan-Vogel Co., Inc., Philadelphia, Pa.
£56.00
Sonatina. For piano solo. Paul Bowles.

4to, 13 + [i] pp. On four loose bifoliums. On aged paper with small closed tears to spine and last leaf repaired with archival tape.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Jonan. Boucher') from George Washington's friend Rev. Jonathan Boucher, to T. Norton of Baston, bearing Boucher's red wax seal.

Author: 
Jonathan Boucher (1738-1804), friend of George Washington, loyalist in the American War of Independence, clergyman and author [T. Norton (c.1728-1806) of Baston, Chief Constable, Ness, Lincs]
Autograph Letter Signed 'Jonan. Boucher', Washington's friend.
Publication details: 
29 March 1802; Epsom.
£300.00
Autograph Letter Signed 'Jonan. Boucher', Washington's friend.

4to, 3 pp. In a bifolium. 52 lines of neatly-written text. Clear and complete. Very good on lightly-aged and creased paper. Part of the second leaf has been cut away on the breaking open of the letter, and is now under the seal, with no loss of text. The seal is cracked, with a light imprint of Boucher's monogram beneath a jester's head. The letter concerns the enclosure of the Langtoft Estate and 'Mr. Bankes', who 'never had any Legal Right to interfere in the Business'.

Autograph Letter Signed, Amédée de Willot [un comte et général de la Révolution française], to a British Admiral [Was Sidney Smith the only Admiral who could speak French?], hostile to democracy among other things.

Author: 
Amédée de Willot, French General.
Autograph Letter Signed, Amédée de Willot [un comte et général de la Révolution
Publication details: 
Baltimore, [Maryland, USA], 29 October 1810.
£380.00
Autograph Letter Signed, Amédée de Willot [un comte et général de la Révolution

Two pages, 4to, bifolium, fold marks, some discoloration, but text clear and complete. He takes the liberty of introducing "deux voyageurs,pour vous renouveller l'expression de ma reconnaissance: ce jour deux jeunes américains bien Elevés, fils des Colonel Howard [American Revolutionary hero and important in the development of Baltimore, etc] et [Sloan?] ... et ce qui est mieux de la consideration publique ils voyagent pour ... et désirent beaucoup de voir un héros de l'angleterre, c'est pourquoi j'ai pris la liberté de vous les adrèsser.

Autograph Letter signed to Barret.

Author: 
Charles Palmer [William Barret (Berret, Burrit); the Townley Estate; the Heir at Law Society]
Charles Palmer [the Townley Estate; the Heir at Law Society, Letter
Publication details: 
'Andes March 15 1852'.
£56.00
Charles Palmer [the Townley Estate; the Heir at Law Society, Letter

4to, 3 pp. Bifolium. Sixty-one lines of text. Clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged and worn paper. Docketed 'William Burrit [sic] & Hawes | Charles Palmer | Mar 15 & May 52 Recd'. Reminding Barret (or Burrit) of a letter written by Palmer from America two or three years previously, which he answered on behalf of the Heir at Law Society.

Manuscript Letter, signed 'Spotttiswoode & Co., to Hudson, regarding copies of his 'The Second War of Independence in America'.

Author: 
Spottiswoode and Co., Printers & Lithographers, New-Street Square, London [Eduard Maco Hudson, American historian]
Spottiswoode and Co., Printers & Lithographers, Letter
Publication details: 
28 November 1867; on Spottiswoode and Co. letterhead.
£56.00
Spottiswoode and Co., Printers & Lithographers, Letter

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium. Nineteen lines. Text clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. They have '300 Bound Copies' of the book 'on hand', 'the remainder have been sold, producing £3. 1 6'. States the cost of shipping the books to Hudson.

Manuscript Letter, in a secretarial hand, signed by Evarts ('Wm M. Evarts'), to E. R. Robinson of the Union Club, New York City.

Author: 
William M. Evarts [William Maxwell Evarts] (1818-1901), US Secretary of State, Attorney General and Senator from New York [Henry Arthur Bright (1830-1884) of Liverpool, English traveller in America]
William M. Evarts, US Secretary of State
Publication details: 
12 November 1879; on letterhead of the Department of State, Washington.
£45.00
William M. Evarts, US Secretary of State

12mo, 2 pp. Bifolium. Very good, on lightly-aged paper. He is sending 'some autograph letters, which I hope may not be without interest to your friend Mr. Henry Bright'. Bright, Hawthorne's closest English friend, toured America in 1852.

Abstract of Ferrier's Greek Philosophy [with notice of Ferrier's life].

Author: 
B. R.' [Professor Benjamin H. Rand (1827-1883); James Frederick Ferrier (1808-1864)]
Publication details: 
Without date or place, but with ownership inscription dated 1881.
£125.00

8vo, 20pp. Stitched. Disbound. In original grey printed wraps (with 'VOL. II.' deleted in blue pencil at foot of title). Fair, on aged paper, with wear and loss to grubby wraps. Ownership inscription on front wrap: 'Henry Norman, April 26. 1881. G.18.' Signed in type 'B. R.' at foot of last page. Providing a detailed synopsis of Ferrier's teachings, with a fifteen-line 'Introductory Notice' of his life. Scarce. No copy at the British Library or on COPAC, and the only copy on WorldCat at Harvard.

The first sixteen volumes of 'The Autograph Collectors' Journal', retitled, from vol.5 no.4 (Summer 1953), 'Manuscripts'.

Author: 
National Society of Autograph Collectors; The Manuscript Society
Publication details: 
Vol.1, no.1 (Chicago: The Norman Press, 'Published by The National Society of Autograph Collectors', October 1948) to vol.16 no.4 (Chicago: 'Published Quarterly by the Manuscript Society', Fall 1964).
£450.00

Sixteen vols, the first seven quarto and last nine octavo. Index to vols.1-11 loosely inserted. Good (apart from issue for Summer 1957 which has slight damp damage), crudely bound in eight volumes of blue cloth, with titles in neat manuscript on white label on spine (one of the bindings stained and two in a lighter shade of blue with titles stamped in gilt). Well produced and profusely illustrated, with informative and scholarly articles, advertisements, and sections on 'the auction market' and 'manuscripts in the news'.

Viking with a Loose Shelailleigh. Tales from Irish America. [playscript]

Author: 
Peter Dee [Peter Rogers Dee] (1939-1999), New York playwright and poet
Publication details: 
[Unpublished typescript.] [Circa 1992.]
£100.00

Photocopy of word processor typed print-out. 8vo, [ii] + 53 pp. Good. In plastic binder. Title carries Dee's address. Second page lists the twelve sections of the play. Loosely inserted is a photocopy of a long review, with photograph, from the East Hampton Star, 26 March 1992, of 'a dramatic reading' of the play at Canio's Books, Sag Harbor. The play was not published, and there are no copies of this item on WorldCat or COPAC.

Autograph Signature ('P. B. Du Chaillu').

Author: 
Paul Du Chaillu [Paul Belloni Du Chaillu] (1835-1903), French-American traveller and anthropologist
Publication details: 
Without date or place.
£28.00

In pencil, on strip of paper roughly 2.5 x 13 cm. Laid down on piece of card. On lightly-aged and creased paper, with small tear close to the right of the signature.

Indicaciones Sumarias para el Immigrante á Bolivia

Author: 
Luis S. Crespo, Sub-Director de Estadistica y Estudios Geográficos del Ministerio [Ministerio de Colonización y Agricultura, Sección de Immigración, Bolivia]
Publication details: 
[Ministerio de Colonización y Agricultura, Sección de Immigracion] La Paz: Taller Tipo - Litográfico - J. M. Gamarra. 1907.
£95.00

8vo, viii + 160 pp. Fold-out map at rear, and five maps (one of them fold-out) as five of the seven plates, with the other two plates photographic portraits of Doctor Ismael Montes and of Manuel V. Ballivián. In original printed wraps, with title on front. In poor condition, on brittle, aged high-acidity paper, with chipping and loss to margins, and the wraps discoloured and with loss at rear. Ownership inscription of Pedro Suarez of London.

Printed handbill, with illustration, headed 'Mississippi River Convention', advertising a meeting 'to consider the condition of this passage in the Mississippi.

Author: 
James Handly, Secretary; Charles E. Cox; James M. Bishop; Thomas Austin; W. B. Bull; Chauncey H. Castle [Mississippi River Convention, 1887]
Publication details: 
[...] to be held in the Assembly Rooms of the Young Men's Business Association, in Quincy, on Thursday, October 13th, 1887'.
£95.00

4to, 1 p. Twenty-six lines of text. Clear and complete. Very good, on aged paper. Minor traces of mount adhering to reverse. Vignette of riverboat beneath heading. Signed by Handly and five others, ending with 'Chauncey H. Castle, Of the Comstock-Castle Stove Co.' Begins 'The division of the Mississippi river between the mouths of the Des Moines and Illinois rivers having been in a notoriously unfavorable condition for the purpose of navigation for the past two years, it has been deemed advisable to call a River Convention'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('J A Lowell') to Rainford, concerning a consignment of botanical books from England.

Author: 
John Amory Lowell (1798-1881), American businessman and philanthropist [Edward Rainford, London bookseller]
Publication details: 
19 June 1843; Boston.
£195.00

4to, 1 p. Twenty-one lines of text. Clear and complete. On aged, stained and worn paper, with a couple of small spike holes. Revealing, in the attention to detail which it exhibits. He begins by reporting that 'the Rosabella arrived safe & the books appear to be correct with the following exceptions'. Two paragraphs follow, carefully describing duplicate plates and other faults in the books received (including "Genus Plantarum"). The replacements may be sent 'through Wilmer & Smith, booksellers, Liverpool - or by Harden's express - or through Messrs. John D.

Autograph Letter Signed ('T. F. Bayard') to the Hon. Francis Lanley.

Author: 
Thomas Francis Bayard (1828-1898), Secretary to President Grover Cleveland [Francis Lanley; Timothy Bigelow Laurence]
Publication details: 
3 April 1881; on letterhead of 1413 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington D.C.
£75.00

12mo, 3 pp. In bifolium. 28 lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged paper. He is going to do Lanley 'a great favor' by assisting him 'to become acquainted with my friend Mrs. Bigelow Laurence [widow of Timothy Bigelow Laurence (1826-1869)] - who will be in England during the summer or autumn'. Reminisces about 'a book you and Casserly and I once planned at a breakfast table here', which was 'to consist of the best specimens of the skill and power of the Poets giving one chance to each'. To assist Lanley he is letting him know 'a woman who is a judge of poetry in its best sense.

Autograph Letter, in the third person, to Captain Mason.

Author: 
Thomas Francis Bayard (1828-1898), Secretary to President Grover Cleveland [Lord George Hamilton]
Publication details: 
24 May 1894; on letterhead of the Embassy of the United States, London.
£56.00

12mo, 1 p. Thirteen lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on aged and foxed paper. Acknowledging 'Captain Mason's note of yesterday', and in response to the request of 'Lord George Hamilton and the Committee', 'Mr Bayard' states that he will 'respond with much pleasure to the toast of "the United States" tonight at the banquet to the Admiral and officers of N.SS Chicago'.

Autograph Letter Signed ('Julian B. Arnold') to Raffin, commenting on the state of the American book trade.

Author: 
Julian Biddulph Arnold, author, and son and biographer of Sir Edwin Arnold (1832-1904) [Alain Raffin]
Publication details: 
20 September 1921; 5132 Kimbark Avenue, Chicago, Illinois [on cancelled letterhead].
£85.00

4to, 2 pp. Twenty-seven lines. Text clear and complete. Fair, on lightly-aged and slightly creased paper. He cannot help Raffin find an American publisher for his book 'Mystery, Mirage and Miracle' (privately printed for the author in London in 1921), although he finds its style 'delightful', and its subject matter 'one which deeply interests me'. 'The book-market is in a very strained condition - a sort of transition period with all the publishers "sitting on the fence", and the public refusing to by any books except a few which have the luck to become fashionable'.

Autograph Letter Signed to unnamed correspondent.

Author: 
William Everett (1839-1910), American Democratic congressman for Massachusetts' Seventh District, [Charles William Eliot (1834-1926); Harvard University]
Publication details: 
15 January 1869; 96 Washington Street.
£75.00

12mo, 3 pp. 42 lines of text. Clear and complete. Good, on lightly-aged paper. Small ink stain at foot of reverse of blank second leaf (not affecting text). Interesting letter, revealing of the politics surrounding appointments within nineteenth-century Harvard. The 'Lectureship' having been 'carried throough', Everett repeats his 'very special request that in some way the Undergraduates may have an opportunity of attending the course - This I regard as vital'. Reports the view of 'Mr. Eliot' on the idea that Everett 'desired to be on the staff of instructors at Harvard'.

Whimsical printed stock letter to 'Dear Friend', in the form of a facsimile of a typed letter, with facsimile of Hubbard's signature, conferring on the recipient Life Membership of the American Academy of Immortals.

Author: 
Elbert Hubbard [The Roycrofters]
Publication details: 
Dated 17 February 1904. Letterhead of The Roycrofters, East Aurora, Erie County, New York.
£56.00

12mo, 2 pp. In bifolium. On yellow paper. Fair, on lightly-aged paper, with slight traces on the second leaf from the mounting of the letter. An amusing and characteristic piece of Roycroft ephemera. The letterhead describes 'The Roycrofters' as 'Makers of de luxe books, hand-made furniture and ornamental iron work. Printers and publishers of the Philistine and Little Journeys'.

Printer's trade catalogue, titled 'Cut Book. Showing a few of the many cuts carried in stock and for sale by The Enterprise Printing House, Corfu, N.Y.' Containing more than a hundred vignettes, with prices.

Author: 
The Enterprise Printing House, Corfu, New York [American trade catalogue]
Publication details: 
Undated [late Victorian or Edwardian]. Corfu, New York State.
£200.00

8vo (23 x 15 cm), 32 pp. Stapled. Outer pages in blue. In fair condition, with a little damp-staining at the head of the first leaf (with minimal effect on the text), and a tiny dab of the same staining continuing at the corner of each leaf (not affecting the text). Title-page on cover illustrated by C. H. Dennis, showing Uncle Sam sharpening a razor of 'GOOD CUTS'. Note on page 2 begins: 'THIS CUT BOOK contains a few of the many varieties and styles of cuts which we carry in stock and use on your printing free of charge. We have many more and are constantly adding new designs. [...]'.

Fascists and Nazis. By Perry Belmont, Commander of the Narragansett Bay Chapter of the Military Order of the World War.

Author: 
Perry Belmont [Eric Underwood; German Nazism; fascism; the Teutonic Order; Freemasonry]
Publication details: 
[Privately printed.] Newport, Rhode Island: December, 1940.
£150.00

Stapled pamphlet. 8vo, 27 pp, including full-page photograph of Mussolini embracing a man in Nazi uniform (Himmler?). Fair: internally clean and tight; some marking and wear to covers. Inscribed on title-page to 'Eric Underwood Esq with the sincere regards of Perry Belmont'. (Underwood is perhaps the English-born Australian nutritionist, 1905-1980.) Curious, digressive, energetic attack on fascism, with sections on the Teutonic Order, 'Oath-bound organisations' (Freemasonry) and 'Gangsters'.

Visits With Henry Miller: A Woman's Point of View. ['50 - copy Limited/Signed Edition']

Author: 
Mamie Gertz [Henry Miller]
Publication details: 
Ann Arbor, Michigan: Roger Jackson, Publisher, 1995.
£180.00

12mo, 36 pp. In wraps, with art paper flyleaves. Very good. Number 26 in the signed edition of fifty copies, which, according to a note by the publisher, 'contains a second photograph of Mamie and Elmer Gertz, rather than the single photograph which is contained in the Trade Edition [of two hundred copies]'.

Olive, Cypress and Palm. An Anthology of Love and Death. Compiled by Mina Curtiss.

Author: 
Mina Curtiss, ed. [Ellery Sedgwick, editor of the Atlantic Monthly]
Publication details: 
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company. 1930.
£56.00

8vo: xvii + 296 pp. In original black cloth, with design in silver stamped on front board. No dustwrapper. Faded spine and lightly-marked cloth. Inscribed by Curtiss on front free endpaper: 'To Ellery Sedgwick - | Most gratefully - | Mina Curtiss | Christmas, 1932.'

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.

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