Browse the latest catalogs, newsletters, and e-lists of rare books, fine bindings, incunabula, print ephemera, and much more from the members of the ABAA below. (Also includes podcasts, blog posts, and other digital formats.)
BACK OF BEYOND BOOKS
Featured item:
Photo Album of 20th Century Women Having Fun and Fighting for Women's Rights in Northeastern Colorado
A nice photo album from Northeastern Colorado dated between 1914 and 1917. Photo album contains approximately 250 photographs that measure between 3 ¼ x 2 ¼ inches and 5 ¾ x 3 ½ inches. Photographs are tipped in and the larger photos were arranged at an angle. Album covers measure 7 1/2 x 11 inches. About half of the pages are annotated in white ink. One photo is missing, having been cut out, and the photo on verso has been cut in half. Photos have light silvering and some are creased. Pebbled cloth covers have moderate wear to edges, and album has a slightly musty smell. Overall good.
This delightful album focuses on women, frivolity, and 20th century life in the West. We have never handled an album that shows early 20th century women having so much fun. Almost all the images in this album depict women gathered together - for portraits on the lawn, picnics in the countryside, goofing off at ranch, swimming in the Platte River, and most wonderfully, supporting women's rights. There are men represented frequently throughout the album but women are still the main characters. The photos in this album were taken in northeastern Colorado in the cities and towns of Brush, Snyder, Camden, Yuma, Juanita, Genoa, Golden and Estes Park. The annotations in the album identify the aforementioned towns along with locations such as the Platte River and Colwell Ranch, and many family names such as Turpin, Sylvester, Stover, Crissmer and Raugh. The compiler of this album seems to be related to the Turpin family of Brush, Colorado. A young woman named "Ripple" ties this album together. She is pictured in most photos and seems to have been traveling with the compiler of this album.
The standout photo in this collection shows a group of young women standing in a wagon with a sign that reads "Votes for Women". The women wear mostly white and almost all have their hands to their collars (almost as if they were holding onto suspenders). Most gaze at the camera seriously. Colorado had passed a referendum in 1893 that secured women's voting rights. These women must have been supporting national women's suffrage and the ratification of the 19th amendment - which was finally accomplished in 1919. Some other great photos depict women having a good time and enjoying each other's company. They laugh as they form a human pyramid, gather in a barn loft for a group shot, and straddle a bridge railing. Eight fun photos show four women playacting an old homesteader scene. Two women are dressed in striped overalls with their arms around their sweethearts (also women), who are dressed for farming with large bonnets and farm tools. One of the women in overalls has a pipe in her mouth, looking tough. A camping trip along the Platte River shows the women in front of their tents, taking off their shoes at the beach, swimming, and one woman holds a dead snake that she has killed. The photo titled "Girls" at the beginning of the album depicts 14 women having a picnic and toasting the photographer with their teacups. Other highlights in this album depict the Brush men's baseball team (4 photos), and Buffalo Bill's grave on Lookout Mountain (1 photo). This is an excellent album showing a great portrait of a woman's life in the 20th century: full of travel, politics, humor and friendship.
Offered by Back of Beyond Books and found in "Americana List."
LORNE BAIR RARE BOOKS
Featured item:
[The Steam Engine] The Principles and Practice and Explanation of the Machinery of Locomotive Engines In Operation on the Several Lines of Railway [ / Used in Steam Navigation; Examples of British and American Steam Vessels / of the Construction of the Steam Engine, Including Pumping, Stationary, and Marine Engines].
London: John Weale, 1850-53. Third edition. Quarto (32cm), three volumes bound as four. Contemporary half parchment, dyed red on boards but undyed on spine, with red cloth over boards, titled in gold on black leather spine labels, with badge of the Oxford and Cambridge University Club at base of spines, edges sprinkled red; marbled endpapers; vol I: [ i]-viii, [i]-vi [7]-72, [1-2], [1]-12, [1]-40, [1]-44, [1]-68, [1]-12, [1]-8, [1]-16, [1]-4pp; vol. II part 1: [i]-vi, [1]-340, [1-2], [1]-42, [1]-52, [1]-20, [1]-[8]pp; vol. II part 1: [i-ii], [vii]-[x]; vol. III: [i]-x, [1]-4, [1]-32, [1]-44, [1]-52, [1]-4, [1]-8, [1]-8, [1]-68, [1]-8, [1]-16, [1]-32, [1]-8pp; with 226 engraved plates (41 in vol. I, 2 in vol. II pt 1, 83 in vol. II pt 2, and 100 in vol. III) and 164 in-text wood engravings, complete. With the binding stamp of Harrison, 59 Pall Mall, to front free endpapers and the ownership stamp of the Oxford & Cambridge University Club to title page versos. Issued with noncontinuous pagination and plate numbering. A sturdy set, somewhat bumped, with minor damage to edges of cloth; dirt to top edge, occasional dirt to plates at upper margins and along folds; eight plates partially torn at folds or gutters, a few battered at fore-edges; nevertheless, a generally clean copy in a sound binding: just Very Good. LOWNDES 2709.
Offered by Lorne Bair Rare Books and found in "Steam Power & Mechanics in the Industrial Revolution."
BARTLEBY'S BOOKS
BAUMAN RARE BOOKS
BERNETT PENKA RARE BOOKS
BETWEEN THE COVERS RARE BOOKS
Featured item:
Men Wanted to Build Aeroplanes for Government Service Apply The Curtiss Aeroplane Co., Buffalo, N.Y.
U.S.A Buffalo: Curtiss Aeroplane Co. Illustrated color poster or broadside on paper. Approximately 19" x 25". Edged at top and bottom with original thin gold-colored metal strips. Two strips of brown tape on verso, likely added later, faint wrinkles and tears, very good or better. Poster printed on white paper stock in red, blue, yellow, and pink, depicts muscular young men in a factory constructing planes. The artist’s signature and date (E.W. Pirson ‘17) appear in the plate lower right. Pirson was a local Buffalo painter and illustrator. A rare and colorful image promoting airplane production in the run-up to American participation in the War. Unlike most WWI posters, which were usually printed for mass distribution, this poster seems geographically specific and was likely done in much smaller numbers. OCLC locates no copies. We haven’t seen another.
Offered by Between the Covers Rare Books and found in "Catalog 249: World War I."
BLIND HORSE BOOKS
LE BOOKINISTE
THE BOOKPRESS, LTD.
Featured item:
NORMILE, John, Editor. THE BOOK OF BILDCOST GARDENED HOME PLANS FROM BETTER HOMES & GARDENS
Des Moines: Meredith Pub. Co., 1936. 4to. Illustrated wrappers 94, (2) pages.
Revised and expanded edition of this very popular house plan book in the 1930's. A collection of 48 articles by such architects as Richard Neutra, pupil of Frank Lloyd Wright, and early leader in "Modern" architecture; Los Angeles architect Arthur F. Herberger; a number of Colonial Revival homes by Theodore Whitehead Davis; and several articles by noted women architects such as Verna Cook Salomonsky and Ethel M. Crosby. Their articles include: "A Home to Grow With; the Three Unit House," "A Home of Distinctive Merit," and "At Home Anywhere; and you don't have to build it all at once," by Verna Cook Salomonsky and one article by Ethel M. Crosby "'Come Hither' House." The articles are filled with illustrations, elevations, and floor plans. Color-illustrated wrappers with stucco home on front cover; blueprints on back, minor dusting, still very good.
Offered by The Bookspress, and found in "Virtual New York Fair."
BRATTLE BOOK SHOP
BROMER BOOKSELLERS
Featured item:
Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists. Together with: Fables and Stories Moralized.
L'Estrange, Sir Roger
London: A. Bettesworth, C. Hitch, et. al. 1738. Octavo. 548; 266pp. Eighth edition. Frontispiece portrait of L'Estrange. The aesthetic of this edition matches that of the bound-in Fables and Stories, which states that it is a second volume, following up the preceding Fables of Aesop, and is the fourth edition, printed in 1730. Set bound in brown calf, rebacked to match. Green ribbon bookmark. Edgwear, tepid foxing throughout, else very good. Bookplate of former owner on front paste-down, another on front flyleaf.
Offered by Bromer Booksellers and found in "E-catalogue 94."
BUDDENBROOKS, INC.
BURNSIDE RARE BOOKS
THE COLOPHON BOOK SHOP
W.S. COTTER RARE BOOKS
JAMES CUMMINS BOOKSELLER
DEWOLFE & WOOD
DIVISION LEAP
ECLECTIBLES
Featured item:
P. C. Darrow, Typographer 1901 Calendar.
Viking's Head Studio. Chicago, IL. 1900. An 11" x 8 ¾" heavy card stock lithograph calendar for P. C. Darrow Typography specializing in booklets and color printing.
Offered by Eclectibles and found in "E-list 83."
LES ENLUMINURES
EVENING STAR BOOKS
GOLDEN LEGEND
JAMES GRAY BOOKSELLER
JONATHAN A. HILL, BOOKSELLER, INC.
JEFF HIRSCH BOOKS
JOHN HOWELL FOR BOOKS
KAATERSKILL BOOKS
BEN KINMONT, BOOKSELLER
Featured item:
A Collection of twenty-two French acts and ordinances concerned with the sale and distribution of various foodstuffs including cheese, butter, eggs, meats, bread, wheat, lentils, peas, rice, and fruit. 1697-1789. Preserved in a marbled-paper clamshell box, red morocco lettering piece on spine.
AN EXTRAORDINARY COLLECTION of twenty-two various laws, taxes, and regulations governing the sale and distribution of foods in France, especially as regards cheese, butter, and eggs, but also for bread, wheat, fruit, peas, rice, and various meats (wild game, veal, chicken, lamb, and goat). All are FIRST EDITIONS and extremely rare; only four are to be found in OCLC, and each of those, in one or two locations only. Twenty are unbound and untrimmed, two are disbound, and nearly all have lovely ornate woodcut headpieces (some of which are signed). These twenty-two works span 92 years and give a wonderful picture of the sale and distribution of foods in France from the late 17th century through the 18th century. During this period, the supply and availability of food was crucial to France’s stability as a nation, and one of the important ways to meet that need, was through the governance of food production and distribution. This collection provides a view into that process as well as much detailed information around the sale and marketing of specific foods. Here are some of the subjects covered by the material in this collection: who is empowered to collect the taxes on various foods; the taxation of food sold in public places; how much the tax will be charged relative to the amount a farmer at market makes in sales; when a food vendor – who sells from their basket or on the street – can let his children negotiate the price of their food for sale; various regulations to ensure food quality and freshness; business licensing; announcements of newly appointed officers to oversee the sale of specific foodstuffs; the taxation of bread and its payment in flour; regulations for bringing food into Les Halles in Paris; the hours in which food vendors can do business; the taxation of foods imported into France; explanation of fines that will be applied to those who fraudulently bring eggs, butter and cheese into the city of Paris or its fauxbourgs; fines for cheeses coming in from other countries; rules concerning the sale and resale of foods; the rights and responsibilities of people from the countryside who want to come and sell their goods through shops in Paris; and a request from the butchers of Paris to the city government regarding their traditional rights and how some boutiques are illegally selling meat in Paris. Many of the laws refer back to earlier 17th-century regulations and most pertain to Paris and its surrounding communities. There are also rules specified for the innkeepers, street food vendors, and the pâtissiers in and around Paris and a large portion of the regulations reference Les Halles, the famous market established in the 12th century to supply Paris with food.
Offered by Ben Kinmont, Bookseller and found in "Gastronomy: September Catalogue."
MICHAEL LAIRD RARE BOOK & MANUSCRIPTS
- From the Reference Library of Dorothy Sloan: Part 1 and Part 2 *New* -- offered in collaboration with Oak Knoll Books.
LANGDON MANOR BOOKS
Featured item:
Provincetown Pbg Directory [Cover title].
Provincetown, Mass: Provincetown Business Guild, Inc., [1980]. 8” x 4”. Stapled self-wrappers. Pp. 36. Near fine: fresh with minimal wear and minor dust soiling on rear wrapper. This is a gay business directory for Provincetown, Massachusetts compiled by the Provincetown Business Guild (“PBG”). While Provincetown has long been known as a gay mecca, its place as a gay travel destination exploded in the late 1970s and early 1980s, in part because of the directory offered here. PBG was founded in 1978 and is today an important part of the Provincetown community and runs the Provincetown LGBTQ+ Welcome Center. Per OCLC records, this is PBG's earliest publication. This is a directory as well as a promotional for Provincetown, with a long article on its history and how it became known for welcoming the LGBTQ+ community.
The directory itself lists over 100 businesses in several different categories along with 21 more specific descriptors such as whether a business was gay owned, if it accepted pets, etc. The book also has a full centerfold cartoon map, though businesses are not noted on it. As the book's event calendar begins in May 1980, we imagine this was issued in March or April of that year. As of 1981 the winter population was 3,500, but summertime saw that explode to 25,000, with 50,000 descending on the small town on weekends. For various reasons, including nightmarish traffic jams, the town's Board of Selectmen issued a moratorium for disco and liquor licenses in the summer of 1981. One columnist who wrote about the moratorium stated, “the reason the gay people are here is that the Provincetown Directory, published by the Provincetown Business Guild, consisting of 175 businessmen, says that Guild businesses 'welcome and support gay patronage.'” OCLC locates two institutions with one copy each of PBG directories, neither of which is the copy on offer. Cornell has a 1981/1982 edition and Brown has a 1981 edition.
Offered by Langdon Manor Books and found in "Catalog 12."
THE LAWBOOK EXCHANGE, LTD.
- Recent Acquisitions: English, American & Continental Law, c.1350-1944 (September 28, 2021) *New*
- Signed & Inscribed Books, Pamphlets, Artwork & Photographs (September 21, 2021) *New*
- American Law, 1762-1853 (September 14, 2021) *New*
- Recent Acquisitions: English, American & Continental Law, 1651-1945 (September 7, 2021) *New*
- Recent Acquisitions: English, American & Continental Law, 1537-1916 (August 31, 2021) *New*
DAVID M. LESSER, FINE ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS
LIBER ANTIQUUS, EARLY PRINTED BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
LIZZYOUNG BOOKSELLER
LOCUS SOLUS RARE BOOKS
KEN LOPEZ BOOKSELLER
Featured item:
CROWLEY, Aleister
Moonchild
London, Mandrake Press, 1929. A novel by the occultist, which is in part a roman a clef -- with various of Crowley's contemporaries and acquaintances appearing in thinly disguised characters: William Butler Yeats as "Gates," for example, and Arthur Edward Waite as "Edwin Arthwait." In addition, Crowley uses the novel form as a vehicle for the exposition of his esoteric philosophy -- he was the head of an occult society at the time, and the novel describes an ongoing magical war between a white lodge and a black lodge -- and as an account of a magical operation involving the creation of a Homunculus, or Magical Child, through the harnessing of spiritual powers derived from the Sun and Moon, incarnating a human being conceived without sex. One of Crowley's proteges later attempted to perform this magical ritual to create a homunculus, in an experiment done in 1947, the year Crowley died. Crowley reportedly feared that his protege might actually succeed in tapping into forces much larger and more powerful than he realized, and unleash great harm on the world. The protege, Jack Parsons -- a rocket scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories during World War II -- worked on the experiment with L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, and was later killed in a mysterious explosion in his laboratory, which speculation over the years has suggested was related to his continuing attempt to perform the homunculus operation and invoke the powers that Crowley describes in this volume. Offsetting to the front flyleaf, faint edge foxing; a very near fine copy in a very good, strikingly illustrated dust jacket with a couple of small edge chips and modest spine sunning. A scarce book in the first edition, in jacket.
Offered by Ken Lopez Bookseller and found in "Catalog 172."
LUX MENTIS BOOKSELLERS
MAIN STREET FINE BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
KENNETH MALLORY, BOOKSELLER
JEFFREY D. MANCEVICE, INC.
MARE BOOKSELLERS
MARTAYAN LAN RARE BOOKS & MAPS
MCBRIDE RARE BOOKS
BRUCE MCKITTRICK RARE BOOKS, INC.
Featured item:
LE BAILLIF, Roch, sieur de la Rivière. d. 1598.
Le Demosterion.
Rennes, [J. du Clos] for P. Le Bret 1578. 4to. [xvi], 190 [r. 202], [2 blank]p. and TWO FOLDING PLATES WITH LETTERPRESS AND WOODCUTS. One nearly full-page chiromantic woodcut, two divisional title-pages, a Le Bret anchor device on the main and second divisional title (dated 1577). Contemporary vellum (soiled and stained), later manuscript spine title, evidence of four pigskin ties, slightly overlapping edges, ruled in red.
Only Antiquarian Edition: “The Demosterion provides the most extensive documentation of early French Paracelsianism” (Baudry, tr.). Half in French and half in Latin, its six parts present an introduction to Paracelsian doctrine, a distillation of its principles into three hundred bilingual aphorisms, a work on divination, a dictionary of Paracelsian terms, a chiromantic essay and a balneological and mineralogical description of Brittany. Together, the texts address alchemy, geomancy, astrology, ethics, dietetics, physiology, pathology and cures for ulcers, leprosy, edema, plague, gout and paralysis.
Schematic, the first plate outlines which remedy cures which ailment according to Paracelsian principles. The second plate has a large woodcut with the phases of the Moon passing through a sidereal month, noting enterprises and therapies favored on each day along with astrological influences.
Complete and in good condition (ink spots on the plates), two contemporary title inscriptions (one dated 1579), 19th-century manuscript shelf labels.
Trevor-Roper, “The sieur de la Rivière, Paracelsian physician to Henri IV” in Science, Medicine, and Society in the Renaissance: Essays to Honor W. Pagel ed. Debus (1972) II: 227-50; Baudry, Contribution à l’étude du paracelsisme en France au XVIe siècle (1560-1580)…Le Demosterion de Roch Le Baillif passim & 217,2; Sudhoff, Bibliographia paracelsica 181a n.; Duveen, Bibliotheca alchemica 343-4 “very rare”; Brunet III: 897 “rare et curieux”.
Offered by Bruce McKittrick Rare Books and found in "STEM 1486-1830)."
MUSINSKY RARE BOOKS
OAK KNOLL BOOKS
PALINURUS ANTIQUARIAN BOOKS
PHILADELPHIA RARE BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
RICHARD C. RAMER, OLD & RARE BOOKS
RAPTIS RARE BOOKS
WILLIAM REESE COMPANY
Featured item:
THE CAPTURE OF AN UNPROTECTED FEMALE, OR THE CLOSE OF THE REBELLION [caption title].
New York: Currier & Ives, 1865. Uncolored lithograph, 13 1/2 x 18 inches. Paper creased along upper edge, a few small chips and closed tears to outer margins (image not affected). Light soiling, tanning and a few spots of foxing. About very good. Matted.
An amusing satire of Jefferson Davis' capture by Union soldiers on May 10, 1865, with him depicted as dressed in women's attire. On the far left his wife, Varina, has her fist raised and yells, "I beseech you to let his Excellency alone!" Next to her is a Union soldier looking at Davis with a devious grin, saying, "he's one of em! he is!!" To his left, another soldier points a gun at Davis and says, "You run well old Gal; but your wind gin out, didn't it?" Davis is in the center, with his hands raised in surrender, saying, "I plainly perceive that this is another blessing in disguise!! and the greatest of them all!!!" Next, another Union soldier appraises Davis' skirt and says, "I say Bill, what do you think of them fixings, did you ever see the like of 'em before?" The final soldier has his hat raised and replies, "Yes by Golly! just like my Sals at home." This lithograph was published by Currier & Ives, after the original artwork by John Cameron.
Following the Confederate defeat at Petersburg on April 2, Robert E. Lee informed Davis that he could no longer protect Richmond and advised the Confederate government to evacuate. Davis and his cabinet fled to Danville, Virginia. After Lee's surrender on April 9, they went further south, traveling through four states by railroad, ferry, horse, and wagon, attempting to evade Union pursuers. Finally, on the night of May 9, Davis and his aides, along with his family, were camped near Irwinville, Georgia, when a detachment from the 4th Michigan Cavalry regiment led by Lt. Col. B.D. Pritchard finally caught up with them.
Davis heard the gunfire from Pritchard's troops and as he started towards his horse, Varina compelled him to wear a plain raglan overcoat, known as a "waterproof," in hopes of disguising him. She also gave him her black shawl to wear on his head, since he could not find his hat. And thus, the titillating story of Davis fleeing Union troops dressed as a woman was born. Predictably, Northerners loved the story, Southerners were enraged by it. It seems likely that Davis was never in women's attire, but it didn't stop a small deluge of caricatures of him dominating the newspapers.
Davis' comment here about his capture being a "another blessing in disguise" alludes to his hopeful comments in response to the Union naval blockade of Confederate ports. Davis realized that foreign support would be essential to the success of the Confederacy, but he and others assumed that as the blockade cut off the supply of cotton to Britain and other European powers, those nations would be inspired to intervene on behalf of the Confederacy. They were not. Britain was not as dependent on Southern cotton as Confederate leaders believed, and European powers simply did not believe the South was capable of winning the war. Not only did no foreign power intervene on the Confederacy's behalf, not a single nation recognized the Confederate States of America diplomatically. THE CONFEDERATE IMAGE, pp.79-96. CURRIER & IVES: CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ 0899. PETERS, CURRIER & IVES 1618.
Offered by William Reese Company and found in "E-list: Detained."
B&L ROOTENBERG RARE BOOKS & MANUSCRIPTS
RULON-MILLER BOOKS
SANCTUARY BOOKS
KEN SANDERS RARE BOOKS
SAVOY BOOKS
GARRETT SCOTT, BOOKSELLER
Featured item:
Love Life: The Truth and Secrets of Human Sex Relations
Voltaire, Dr. Eugene E.
Portland, Oregon: n. p., [ca. 1932]. Wire-stitched pamphlet in gilt and black printed red wrappers, 8.06 x 6.13 inches, 87, [3] pages. First edition?
“It would not be difficult in any sense to write at length on the art of copulation. . . . The instructions given on the previous pages are of no value to anyone until, thru their study, the art of perfect copulation is mastered as it should be.”
A detailed pamphlet aimed at the moderately lubricious, popular-lecture, educational-exploitation-film, sensation-seeking crowd, explaining the physiology, functions, and derangements of the male and female sexual organs, with much on both the social and physical toll of venereal diseases, self-abuse, etc., along with a detailed description of the seven stages of physical love.
To judge from his appearances in contemporary newspaper accounts, Eugene E. Voltaire (ca. 1891-1943) ascended from a bit player in early Universal Film silent movies (he had a part in the 1923 drug-smuggler kidnapping movie, Crashing Courage) to an arrest in 1929 for violation of the Mann Act, when his occupation was then reported in the Los Angeles Times as a salesman.
But by 1931, only a couple years off his arrest, freshly divorced and now claiming the title of doctor, Voltaire reappears in newspapers credited as a celebrated sexologist and sex instructor on various aspects of health and happiness; by 1932, he had worked himself up to sharing a stage with screenings of the scientific evolution documentary Mystery of Life, narrated by Clarence Darrow, and soon thereafter is traced through the advertising columns of western newspapers traveling the Pantages circuit across the Pacific Northwest to deliver “Ladies Only” lectures, “Illustrated With Living Artists [sic] Models.” Voltaire evidently made appearances across the West through about 1937, often sharing the bill with various exploitation films.
Uncommon in any edition; this bookselling concern has also handled another printing of this title (trimmed slightly shorter that this copy and published with only 58 pages, that shorter edition explicitly advertising the sale of the antiseptic douche Vol-Va-Kol, “For the careful woman.”) This 87-page edition is strict on the need for vaginal cleanliness but stops short of endorsing any name brands.
These pamphlets were of course ephemeral and fugitive; the NUC and OCLC each note only Voltaire’s The Human Sex Relation (Portland, n. d.) at the University of Oregon; OCLC adds his Marihuana and sex (n. p., ca. 1930s?) at the University of Alberta only, while another copy of this title, as noted in this description above, has passed over this bookseller’s desk and subsequently into institutional hands. A trifle rubbed and soiled; a very good copy.
Offered by Garrett Scott, Bookseller and found in "Occasional List 75: Esoteric/Medicine."
SECOND STORY BOOKS
TAVISTOCK BOOKS
TEN POUND ISLAND BOOK COMPANY
TOMBERG RARE BOOKS
TSCHANZ RARE BOOKS
WALKABOUT BOOKS
JEFF WEBER RARE BOOKS
ADAM WEINBERGER RARE BOOKS
JOHN WINDLE ANTIQUARIAN BOOKSELLER
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