American History Books

A <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/luxury/books-&amp;-manuscripts/book?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Fine%2520bindings" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">finely bound</a>, Federal Edition of <a href="https://www.sothebys.com/en/search?locale=en&amp;Book%20Subject=Fine%2520bindings&amp;query=The%20Works%20Of%20Benjamin%20Franklin&amp;tab=objects" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Works Of Benjamin Franklin</a>.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 12 volumes.</li><li>Benjamin Franklin (American).</li><li>Compiled and edited by John Bigelow.</li><li>Boston:&nbsp;G.P. Putnam's Sons,&nbsp;1904.</li><li>Limited to 1,000 copies of which this is 398.</li><li>Bound in three-quarters red morocco with marbled boards, gilt-tooling on the covers and raised band spines, top edges gilt, marbled endpapers.</li></ul>

The Works Of Benjamin Franklin

A finely bound edition of Henry Irving's Impressions of America.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2 volumes.</li><li>Joseph Hatton (English).</li><li>London:&nbsp;Sampson Low, Marston, Searle &amp; Rivington,&nbsp;1884.</li><li>Bound in three-quarter green calf with marbled boards, ornate gilt-tooling on raised band spines with marbled endpapers, top edge gilt.</li></ul>

Irving's Impressions of America

A first edition copy of My Bondage and My Freedom, by Frederick Douglass.<ul><li>Frederick Douglass (American).</li><li>My Bondage and My Freedom: Part I - Life as a Slave, Part II - Life as a Freeman...with an Introduction by Dr.James M'Cune Smith.</li><li>New York and Auburn:&nbsp;Miller, Orton and Mulligan, 1855.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>464 pages.</li><li>With frontispiece and plates.</li><li>Bound in the publisher's brown cloth, blocked in blind, spine lettered in gilt, yellow endpapers.</li></ul> Douglass published his first autobiography, Narrative of the Life, in 1845 in which he described his years in captivity in Maryland and his eventual escape and involvement in the abolition movement. "Published seven years after the author escaped slavery. It is probably the best known narrative of the ante-bellum period" (Blockson). Ten years later, he heavily revised and expanded his autobiography as the present My Bondage and My Freedom. Almost three times the length of the Narrative, My Bondage provides considerably more detail about Douglass' enslavement and escape and includes events which had occurred between 1845 and 1855 as a free man. Notably, the book also includes an appendix with extracts from some of Douglass notable speeches, including both his famous "Letter to His Old Master" and "What to the Slave is the Fourth of July." The work also includes a new introduction by African American abolitionist James McCune Smith, whom Douglass described as "the single most important influence" on his life. The book was an instant bestseller, selling around 5,000 copies in two days.

My Bondage and My Freedom

A finely bound Standard Library edition of The Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 13 volumes.</li><li>Oliver Wendell Holmes (American).</li><li>Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin &amp; Co., 1892.</li><li>Illustrated with steel portraits and photogravures.</li><li>Bound in three-quarter blue morocco and marbled boards, the raised band spines display gilt-tooled detailing, the top edges are gilt with marbled endpapers.</li></ul>

The Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes

A first English language edition of de Tocqueville's Democracy in America.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2 volumes.</li><li>Alexis de Tocqueville (French, 1805-1859)</li><li>Translated by Henry Reeve.</li><li>London:&nbsp;Saunders and Otley,&nbsp;1835.&nbsp;</li><li>Octavos.</li><li>With hand-colored foldout map in volume 2.&nbsp;</li><li>Both volumes with one leaf of ads in rear.</li><li>Bound in contemporary half brown leather with marbled paper boards, morocco labels with gilt lettering to spines.</li></ul>

Democracy in America

A first edition copy of the trial transcript of Richard Johnson.<ul><li>A correct copy of the trial &amp; conviction of Richard Johnson for the murder of Ursula Newman, on the 20th Nov. 1828, by shooting her with a pistol loaded with buck shot or slugs, nine of which entered her body; together with the charge of the court, and the confession of the prisoner of his entention to have added suicide to the horrid and appalling murder for which he is to suffer an ignomenious death, and his letter to a friend in Philadelphia previous to his conviction.</li><li>New York: by Christian Brown, n.d., [1829].</li><li>Includes a woodcut illustration of the murder on title page.</li><li>Original stitching, entirely uncut as issued.</li></ul> Johnson had been living with Mrs. Newman for several years. He had urged her to marry him, and, although she had had a child by him, she refused to wed him, nor would she even acknowledge that the child was his. Apparently distracted by this and business worries, Johnson shot and killed her. He was hanged on Blackwell’s (now Welfare) Island at the same time as Catherine Cashier.

A Correct Copy of the Trial and Conviction of Richard Johnson

A copy of the transcripts of the Trial of William Dandridge Epes.<ul><li>Trial of William Dandridge Epes, for the Murder of Francis Adolphus Muir, Dinwiddie County, Virginia: Including the Testimony Submitted in the Case, the Speeches of Counsel, &amp;C. To Which Are Added the Confessions of the Prisoner, an Account of His Execution, &amp;C. &amp;C.</li><li>Petersburg, Virginia: J.M.H. Brunet, Reporter, 1849.</li></ul> In order to avoid foreclosure of his property in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, Epes murdered Francis Adolphus Muir, the mortgage holder, on February 2, 1846, when Muir showed up to collect payment. Epes shot him and buried the body in a grove of trees on his property. "He faked a series of letters to account for Muir's absence" [McDade]. When the body was discovered in July, 1846, Epes fled to Texas. He was eventually captured almost two years later and tried at Dinwiddie County, where he was convicted and hanged. "Pawning the victim's watch led to the arrest and conviction of Epes for the murder of Francis Muir, who had threatened to foreclose on property he had sold Epes." This is the only separately published contemporary account of a significant Virginia trial, including the prisoner's execution speech. The case was notable enough to be included, with a full introduction, in Lawson, AMERICAN STATE TRIALS, Vol. 3, 1915, pp. 412-520. Adding to its importance in the annals of crime in antebellum Virginia was the participation of four distinguished members of the Virginia bench and bar who would later play significant roles in the Confederacy: John W. Nash, presiding judge; William T. Joynes and Timothy Rives, counsel for the defense; and Thomas Saunders Gholson, counsel for the prosecution. Lawson notes that the evidence against Epes "was very strong on all points, but his lawyers fought strenuously for his life," despite which, only minutes after Gholson's closing argument, the jury returned a guilty verdict of first-degree murder.

Trial of William Dandridge Epes

Six edition of the biography of the legendary outlaw brothers, Frank and Jesse James.&nbsp;<ul><li>New York: Richard K. Fox, 1881.</li><li>1 vol, 67 pages.</li><li>Illustrated with 28 full page woodcut plates.</li><li>2 2 additional pages of rear adverts.</li><li>Stapled.</li></ul>

The Outlaw Brothers, Frank and Jesse James: Lives and Adventures of the Scourges of the Plains

A first edition set of the biography of Abraham Lincoln.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 2 volumes.</li><li>Albert J. Beveridge (American, 1862-1927).</li><li>Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1928.</li><li>With frontis portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, and illustrations.</li><li>Bound in half blue morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spines, top edges gilt.</li></ul> Beveridge spent most of his final years writing the biography of Abraham Lincoln, which was posthumously published in two volumes in 1928. His biography was very scholarly and stripped away the myths about Lincoln to reveal a complex and imperfect politician. In 1939, the American Historical Association established the Beveridge Award in his memory through a gift from his widow and donations from members.

Abraham Lincoln 1809-1858

A finely bound collection of the Life of Washington.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 5 volumes.</li><li>Washington Irving (American).</li><li>Life of George Washington</li><li>New York: G.P. Putnam &amp; Co., 1857.</li><li>Bound in three-quarter brown calf and marbled boards with the raised band spines gilt-tooled with tan and green morocco labels, all of the edges are marbled with marbled endpapers.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Life of Washington

A finely bound copy of D.B. Warden's Account of the United States of North America.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3 volumes.</li><li>David Bailie Warden (Irish-American).</li><li>Statistical, Political &amp; Historical Account of the United States of America from the Period of their First Colonization to the Present Day.</li><li>Edinburgh: Constable &amp; Co., 1819.</li><li>Illustrated with two folding maps.</li><li>Bound in three-quarter tan calf and marbled boards, the raised band spine displays gilt-tooled detailing on the panels and red labels.</li></ul>

Account of the United States of North America

An important edition of McKenney and Hall's&nbsp;History of the Indian Tribes of North America&nbsp;with 123 full-page color plates&nbsp;<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3.</li><li>Thomas L. McKenney (American).</li><li>James B. Hall (American).</li><li>Volume I includes a historical introduction by Frederick Webb Hodge.</li><li>Edinburgh:&nbsp;John Grant,&nbsp;1933-1934.&nbsp;</li><li>Illustrated with two photogravure portraits of McKenney and Hall, 123 color plates after portraits by Charles Bird King, and two full-color folding maps.</li><li>Bound in original blue pictorial cloth stamped in blind, gilt-lettered spines, in original typographic dust jackets (no price on flaps), top edges gilt, other edges uncut.</li></ul> Thomas L. McKenney, a Quaker, served as the US Government's Superintendent of Indian Affairs from 1824 to 1830. During this period, he worked with the renowned American artist Charles Bird King, commissioning the artist to paint portraits of Native leaders who were visiting the government in DC. The fame of the paintings soon spread, and McKenney conceived of a massive printing project to record them in book form. At the same time, incoming president Andrew Jackson fired McKenney, after McKenney fundamentally rejected Jackson's stance on the US's relationship with Indigenous nations. Suddenly jobless, McKenney threw himself into the project, mounting one of the most ambitious book projects ever seen in the United States up to that time: three elephant folio volumes containing 120 hand-colored plates. Already a significant record of leaders and their nations, the books took on supreme importance as a cultural document after a fire at the Smithsonian engulfed the majority of Charles Bird King's original paintings. This edition made the production accessible in the 20th century beyond the increasing rarity of the 19th century folio and octavo editions. Its introduction by Hodge captures the growing legend of the story behind the production, detailing the delays and obstacles that threatened more than once to end the project. A noteworthy edition, mythologizing and making accessible the story of a critical record of Indigenous nations in the pre-Jacksonian era.

History of the Indian Tribes of North America

A first edition copy of this remarkable collection of silhouette portraits of prominent politicians and leaders, created by scissors artist William H. Brown.<ul><li>William H. Brown (American).</li><li>Hartford:&nbsp;E. B. and E. C. Kellogg,&nbsp;1846.</li><li>110 pages.</li><li>Illustrated with three-color lithograph frontispiece and 25 black and yellow lithograph plates with paper guards, with 26 lithograph letter facsimiles.&nbsp;</li><li>Bound in publisher's quarter goatskin cloth boards with gilt pictorial stamping and gilt top edge.</li></ul> As William H. Brown notes in his introduction, Revolutionary figures have always carried an outsized influence on America's history and portraiture. In Portrait Gallery of Distinguished American Citizens, Brown strove to add 19th century icons to the pantheon of US history, expanding it in the style of the then-mainstream the Great Man Theory of history. His selection of the silhouette as his art form of choice for this work is striking: as photography became more popular in the mid-19th century, silhouettes were quickly falling out of favor. But Brown was known for pushing the boundaries of the form, leading silhouettes to enjoy "a period of popularity, when [they] were considered the quintessential contemporary snapshots of public and private life" (K.S., 103). An example of Brown's artistry—and what gives these images an unexpectedly modern feel—is the setting of his portraits: his dark, flat silhouettes have been placed within realistic backgrounds depicted using traditional techniques of perspective. It is as though these men have been distilled to their essential form, with sparse details added in faint white pencil, yet still exist within the real world. A stunning antebellum project of mythologizing American history.

Portrait Gallery of Distinguished American Citizens and Fac-Similes of Original Letters

The first appearance in print of The Old Man and the Sea, preceding Scribner’s publication by 11 days.<ul><li>Ernest Hemingway (American).</li><li>Text illustrated with drawings by Noel Sickles.</li><li>Chicago:&nbsp;TIME, Inc,&nbsp;September 1, 1952.</li><li>88 pages.</li><li>Bound in photographically illustrated front wrapper.</li></ul>

The Old Man and the Sea LIFE Magazine

A first edition copy of Walker Evans' American Photographs.<ul><li>Walker Evans (American).</li><li>With an essay by Lincoln Kirstein.</li><li>New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 1938.</li><li>198 pages.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>With black-and-white photographs printed in relief halftone by The Spiral Press, New York, from plates made by Beck Engraving Company.</li><li>Bound in black cloth-covered boards, with cream endpapers, border in blind, printed title-label mounted on spine, in printed dust jacket, grey with text in black.</li></ul> In 1938, the Museum of Modern Art staged an exhibition of Evans' photographs, the first exhibition at the museum to be devoted to the work of a single photographer. Evans worked closely with Lincoln Kirstein on the edit and sequence of the photographs, both for the exhibition and in the accompanying book American Photographs, for which Kirstein also provided the essay. Kirstein writes, "In Evans's pictures of temples or shelters the presence or absence of the people who created them is the most important thing… The structures are social rather than artistic monuments. The photographs are social documents!" Evans and Kirstein divided the book into two thoughtfully sequenced sections. The first shows American citizens, or their representations, alone, in groups, and often within the context of their built environments. The second shows these environments and comprises the "streets and storefronts, homes and graveyards, industrial plants and roadside stands [that] are frozen in time, many of them in a permanent state of decay."

American Photographs

A first edition copy of Les Américains.<ul><li>Robert Frank (Swiss-American).</li><li>Paris: Encyclopédie Essentielle, Robert Delpire Éditeur, 1958.</li><li>172 pages.</li><li>Oblong octavo.</li><li>Includes black-and-white photographs printed in gravure by Draeger Frères.</li><li>With texts by various authors selected by Alain Bosquet.</li><li>Bound in laminated white paper-covered boards illustrated with an illustration by Saul Steinberg printed in light blue, black and red.</li></ul> "A sad poem for sick people." An uncommonly fine copy of the first published edition of Robert Frank's The Americans, a book that altered the course of twentieth-century photography and held a mirror to the American people. In his successful application for a Guggenheim grant, Frank wrote: "The project I have in mind is one that will shape itself as it proceeds… The material is there; the practice will be in the photographer's hand, the vision in his mind." Between April 1955 and June 1956, he set out on a series of trips across America. He aimed to complete a body of work that would be "a broad, voluminous picture record of things American, past and present... A visual study of a civilisation." Les Américains follows a careful and complex sequence, with four chapters, each exploring a different aspect of American culture and introduced by a photograph of the American flag. In this, the first edition, the photographs are accompanied by a series of texts by various writers selected by Alain Bosquet.

Les Américains

A typed letter by former President Roosevelt to former American ambassador to France Jesse Straus.<ul><li>Franklin Delano Roosevelt (American).</li><li>New York: 1932.&nbsp;</li><li>One-page typed letter on "Executive Mansion" stationary signed by FDR in black ink.</li><li>Letter thanks Mr. Straus for his service and friendship and mentions "the serious problems that lie ahead."</li><li>Jesse Isidor Straus (June 25, 1872 – October 4, 1936) was the son of Isidor Straus (1845–1912) and Ida Straus (1849–1912), both of whom died in the sinking of the RMS Titanic.</li></ul>

Typed Letter To Jesse Straus

A copy of Hines' Early Recollections of Washington City.<ul><li>Christian Hines (American).</li><li>Washington, D.C.&nbsp;Chronicle Book and Job Print,&nbsp;1866.</li><li>96 pages.</li><li>Small octavo.</li><li>Signed by author on first page.</li><li>Rebound in tan paper wraps with original front cover attached.</li></ul>

Early Recollections of Washington City

A first edition copy of the book that changed baseball — Bill James's second Baseball Annual, one of just 250 copies.<ul><li>Bill James (American).</li><li>1978 Baseball Abstract: The 2nd Annual Edition of Baseball's Most Informative and Imaginative Review.</li><li>Lawrence, KS:&nbsp;Bill James,&nbsp;1978.</li><li>115 pages.</li><li>Bound in original stab-stapled printed green wrappers, xerographically reproduced throughout.</li></ul> In 1977 when James published the first installment in his long-running series of abstracts, he would have seemed an unlikely candidate to change the very game he was writing about. A worker at a pork and beans factory, James photocopied a small edition of (the cover proclaimed) "Statistical Information That You Just Can't Find Anywhere Else." He offered them for sale via the classified ads of The Sporting News, and sold only about 75 copies. Of this seemingly inauspicious beginning, Michael Lewis would later write: "[H]ad he left off writing in 1977, James would have been dismissed as just another crank [...] It didn't occur to him to be disappointed by the sale of seventy-five copies; he was encouraged [...] In 1978, James came out with a second book [...] Word had spread this time: 250 people bought a copy [...] James's pen was now an unstoppable force." And though it took more than a decade, the force of James's writing and his sheer statistical might slowly gathered a group of adherents both inside and out of professional baseball. Outside pro ball, James's approach helped launch the fantasy sports era with the popularity of Rotisserie Baseball, a game almost impossible to imagine without James. More importantly, within baseball a small number of coaches, scouts, managers and executives began experimenting with James's almost pure reliance on statistics (and not baseball's more traditionally semi-superstitious ways). This embrace of his strategy culminated most famously in the Oakland A's GM Billy Beane's remarkable run utilizing James "sabermetric" methods—leading the team to the postseason for four consecutive years (2000 through 2003) on one of baseball's lowest total salaries—a story made famous by Michael Lewis's bestselling book Moneyball (and its subsequent film adaptation starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill and Philip Seymour Hoffman). James's approach would go on to have a huge impact even beyond the world of sports, with "moneyball" eventually entering the broader lexicon for any deeply statistical and evidenced-based approach that also runs counter to prevailing wisdom. As the new century progressed, a wide range of fields and figures—from those betting against the housing market (topic of another Michael Lewis book), to the political polling of figures like Nate Silver and the GTO strategies of professional poker, as well as a seemingly infinite number of Silicon Valley startups looking to "moneyball [fill in the blank]"—would evidence James's telltale fingerprints. He and Baseball Abstract have gone on to influence economists, physicists, mathematicians and other bestselling books like Freakonomics, which appeared just two years after Moneyball. As the Abstract became more popular in subsequent years, James did reprints of this and the 1977 edition (both with the word "REPRINT" prominently displayed on the covers). However, original printings of the first two installments remain truly rare. Indeed, the rarity of these early abstracts can be measured by the fact that not only does OCLC not show any holdings for either the 1977 or 1978 editions (including the reprints), but none for the 1979 or 1980 editions as well. It is not until the 1981 installment (the last James published himself before its acquisition by Ballantine) that we find a record in OCLC—a single copy at The Strong National Museum of Play.

1978 Baseball Abstract

Signed Author's Edition of The Complete Writings of Elbert Hubbard with three pages of Hubbard's handwritten manuscript.<ul><li>Elbert Hubbard (American).</li><li>The Roycroft Shop, New York: 1914.</li><li>20 volume set.</li><li>Quarter red leather with impressed gilt decoration and spine.</li><li>Edition number 357/1000 copies.</li><li>Signed with tipped-in manuscript page; vol. 1 with three pages of Hubbard's handwritten manuscript pasted to front free endpaper.</li><li>Each volume autographed by Hubbard in purple on limitation pages (20).</li><li>Quarter red leather with impressed gilt decoration and spine.</li></ul>

The Complete Writings of Elbert Hubbard 

The second edition in English of the first part, and the first edition in English of the second part of Tocqueville's Democracy In America.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 4 volumes.</li><li>Alexis de Tocqueville (French).</li><li>Translated by Henry Reeve.</li><li>London:&nbsp;Saunders and Otley,&nbsp;1836 and 1840.</li><li>Octavos.</li><li>Volume one with half title.</li><li>With hand-colored foldout map.&nbsp;</li><li>Bound in quarter brown leather with marbled paper boards, newly rebacked with paneled spines and red and black labels with gilt lettering, edges of text blocks marbled, with marbled endpapers, all four volumes with Drayton Manor armorial bookplates of Sir Robert Peel to the front pastedowns</li></ul>

Democracy In America

A limited-edition, signed copy of President Johnson's The Vantage Point: Perspectives Of The Presidency 1963-1969.<ul><li>Lyndon B. Johnson (American).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Holt Reinhart Winston,&nbsp;1971.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Numbered 124.</li><li>Signed flat on the limitation page by Johnson.</li><li>Additionally inscribed on the dedication page: "To Michael Cohen Who helped make these years productive ones — from his friend Lyndon B. Johnson," with a calling card from Mr. and Mrs. Lyndon Baines Johnson and a handwritten "Merry Christmas" in red ink above.&nbsp;</li><li>Bound in publisher's notoriously fragile and brittle padded red leather, dull gilt lettering to spine.</li></ul>

The Vantage Point: Perspectives Of The Presidency 1963-1969

First edition of An Appeal by an Old Member of Parliament.<ul><li>Attributed to Arthur Lee (American).</li><li>London:&nbsp;J. Almon,&nbsp;1774.&nbsp;</li><li>An Appeal to the Justice and Interests of the People of Great Britain in the Present Disputes with America by an Old Member of Parliament.</li><li>[2], 63 pages, [4].&nbsp;</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Four pages of publisher's ads appear at back.&nbsp;</li><li>Pamphlet later bound in light blue boards.</li></ul>

An Appeal to the Justice and Interests of the People of Great Britain

First edition of Douglass' autobiography.<ul><li>Frederick Douglass (American).</li><li>Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave.</li><li>Boston:&nbsp;Anti-Slavery Office,&nbsp;1845.&nbsp;</li><li>xvi, 125 pages.&nbsp;</li><li>Bound in publisher's brown cloth with lettering in gilt and stamping in blind.&nbsp;</li></ul>

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

First Sparks edition and the first collected edition large paper copies of correspondence, addresses, messages and other papers, official and private, selected and published from the original manuscripts, The Writings of George Washington, with A Life of the Author, notes and illustrations by Jared Sparks.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 12.</li><li>George Washington (American).</li><li>Jared Sparks (American).</li><li>Boston: American Stationers’ Company; Boston: Russell, Odiorne, and Metcalf, and Hilliard, Gray, and Co.; Boston: Russell, Shattuck, and Williams, and Hilliard, Gray, and Co. 1834-1837.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>All first issues except volume III which is a second issue.</li><li>Illustrated with frontispieces to four volumes and thirty further plates as called for.</li><li>Bound in recent tan half calf over marbled boards, gilt titles on red and green morocco squares to spines, gilt tooling to spines, marbled endpapers.</li></ul>

The Writings of George Washington

An important landmark map of America with illustrations of native Americans.<ul><li>John Speed (English).</li><li>Engraved by Abraham Goos (English).</li><li>London: Roger Rea and Son, 1627.</li><li>Illustrations of 10 costume vignettes of native Americans, including the kings of New England and Florida, a Virginian and Greenlander.</li><li>Originally engraved for Speed's "Prospect of the Most Famous Parts of the World," the first English atlas.</li></ul> An important map of America, the first atlas map to show California as an island. Above California is the outline of another large, unnamed island; nothing is shown of the Great Lakes; and Raleigh's "Parime Lacus" and "Manoa" appear in South America. An inset shows Greenland, Iceland and the mythical islands of Friesland &amp; Buss. Along the top of the map are prospects of eight cities, including Havana, Cartagena, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. This example comes from the Roger Rea issue, which was beset with disaster: according to an advert for the 1676 Bassett &amp; Chiswell edition, "the greatest part of an Impression, then newly Printed, [was] destroyed by the late dreadful Fire, 1666." Surviving examples of any Rea map are thus rare. For his issue Rea amended the plate, adding English place names including Boston, "Long Ile," "Mary Land" and Carolina.

English Landmark Map of America

First edition of this collection of eight popular booklets issued by the National Woman Suffrage Association, designed especially for the convenience of suffrage speakers and writers and for the use of debaters and libraries; in the scarce dust jacket and with an inserted publisher's notice listing new legislative gains made in the year since publication<ul><li>Jane Addams (American).</li><li>Carrie Chapman Catt (American).</li><li>Edited by Frances Maule Björkman (American).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;National Woman Suffrage Association,&nbsp;[1912].</li><li>Publisher's "Important Notice" laid in, noting several legal changes between the book's 1912 publication and June 1913.</li><li>Bound in original blue cloth, in original brown printed dust jacket.</li></ul> The volume was edited by Frances Maule Björkman, socialist and member of the Heterodoxy feminist debating club of Greenwich Village, and Annie G. Porritt, a follower of Alice Paul and the National Women's Party. Their names, along with the informal title The Blue Book, would later appear on the title page of the revised edition. Full contents include: "Why Women Should Vote," by Jane Addams; "Objections Answered: Why Should Women Vote?" by Alice Stone Blackwell; "Where Women Vote," by Björkman; "Do You Know," by Carrie Chapman Catt; "A Comon-Sense View of Woman Suffrage," by Jesse Lynch Williams; "Why Women Want to Vote," by Björkman; "Measuring Up Equal Suffrage: An Authoritative Estimate of Results in Chicago," by George Creel and Ben B. Lindsey; and "Eminent Opinions on Woman Suffrage," a selection of quotations from Abraham Lincoln, Susan B. Anthony, Mark Twain and many other notable figures. A landmark publication in US political history.

Woman Suffrage: Arguments and Results

Limited-edition set of journals detailing the Lewis and Clark expedition.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 15.</li><li>Original Journals of Lewis and Clark Expedition 1804–1806.</li><li>Meriwether Lewis (American).</li><li>William Clark (American).</li><li>New York:&nbsp;Dodd, Mead &amp; Company,&nbsp;1904–1905.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>Includes Atlas volume.</li><li>Limited edition of 200, this being number 46.</li><li>Bound in publisher's grey-green cloth, gilt to spines and front boards.&nbsp;</li></ul>

The Journals of Lewis and Clark

One-of-a-kind binding of&nbsp;1939: The Lost World of the Fair&nbsp;from the 2010–2011 Exhibition of the Midwest Bookbinders Association.<ul><li>David Gelernter (American, b. 1955).</li><li>Artist binding by Scott Kellar (American).</li><li>New York: Free Press, 1995.</li><li>Bound in full black goatskin leather with onlays, gold tooling and embossing with Maziarcyzk paste paper endpapers and hand-sewn red silk endbands and black edges.</li><li>Housed in a cloth-covered clamshell box with a leather label gilt with the title and author's name.</li></ul> Artist statement by Scott Kellar from the exhibition: "David Gelernter is a favorite non-fiction writer of mine. Although he was victimized by the 'Unabomber,' he overcame physical problems to continue writing excellent books. This book is a fascinating humanized look at American culture in 1939, through the lens of the 1939 New York World’s Fair. It was the height of the American art deco period that exhibited a wedding of art and technology never since equaled. The&nbsp;creative energies fired with national hope and enthusiasm gave birth to a remarkable World’s Fair which he describes against a backdrop of New York City and variety of actual people. I’ve emulated the style and boldness of the period, including the amazing Trylon and Perisphere, in my design."

1939: The Lost World of the Fair

Finely bound copy of&nbsp;Early History of Chicago,&nbsp;selected for inclusion in the 2000 Chicago Hand Bookbinders Exhibition.<ul><li>Ulrich Danckers (German-American).</li><li>Jane Meredith (American).</li><li>Scott Kellar (American).</li><li>A Compendium of the Early History of Chicago to the Year 1835 When the Indians Left.</li><li>Lake Forest: Early Chicago, Inc., 2000.</li><li>Bound in maroon goatskin with tan leather endbands, back board decorated with gold ruling and has an inlaid leather label, page edges are colored blue with matching blue Bugra endsheets.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Housed in a custom-made cloth-covered clamshell box.</li></ul>

A Compendium of the Early History of Chicago

First edition, first printing of&nbsp;The Story of the War of 1898&nbsp;printed on very heavyweight paper.<ul><li>W. Nephew King (American).</li><li>New York: Peter Fenelon Collier, 1898.</li><li>312 pages.</li><li>7 color illustrations, foldouts, 61 full-page black-and-white photographs and illustrations.</li><li>Bound by C&amp;H in signed leather binding of army-green cowhide leather foil stamped with the title and black foil-stamped cannons, and stitched with Irish linen thread and archival material used for the boards and endsheets.</li></ul>

The Story of the War of 1898

Collection of Black Panther handbills from 1969 and 1970.<ul><li>Sold as a set of 3.</li><li>New York/Philadelphia: 1969/1970.&nbsp;</li></ul> Mimeographed light yellow handbill issued in New York on December 8, 1969.<ul><li>New York: 1969.</li><li>Two-page handbill on one sheet.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>The recto is headlined “Stop the Persecution of the Black Panther Party” and addresses the death of Hampton.</li><li>The bottom announces an anti-Nixon demonstration at the Waldorf.</li><li>The verso advertises the fundraising efforts of the Defense Committee for the Wilmington 8.</li></ul> Mimeographed beige handbill printed April 1969.<ul><li>New York: 1969.</li><li>1 page.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>Announcing a demonstration at the bail hearing for the Panther 21.</li></ul> Mimeographed white handbill printed by the Philadelphia branch of the Black Panther Party.<ul><li>Philadelphia: 1970.</li><li>Two-page handbill on single sheet.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>Headlined “Cisco-Kidd Pig Rizzo Oinks Again!”</li></ul>

Black Panther Handbills 

Pamphlet collection of documents regarding the Eleventh Amendment of the United States.<ul><li>Message from the President of the United States, Accompanying A Report from the Secretary of State, and Copies of Acts of the Legislatures of the States of Connecticut, Maryland, and Virginia, Ratifying the Amendment Proposed by Congress, Concerning the Suability of States, in Pursuance of A Resolution of the Two Houses, of the Second of March Last.</li><li>Washington, D.C.&nbsp;U.S. House of Representatives,&nbsp;1798.</li><li>12 pages.</li><li>Duodecimo.</li><li>Side-sewn pamphlet.</li></ul>

Regarding the Eleventh Amendment of the United States

Maps of the District of Columbia and City of Washington including maps of squares and lots.<ul><li>Washington, D.C.&nbsp;printed by A. Boyd Hamilton,&nbsp;1852.</li><li>159 numbered leaves.</li><li>Quarto.</li><li>Features three additional foldout maps tipped in and reinforced with cloth backing.</li><li>Bound in contemporary half leather with marbled paper boards.</li></ul>

Maps of the District of Columbia and City of Washington

A collection of original photographs of the protests which took place at the Grant Park bandshell on the first day of the trial, taken by a staff photographer for the underground newspaper Second City.&nbsp;<ul><li>Sold as a set of 9.</li><li>Chicago: September 24, 1969.</li><li>Photographs depict Fred Hampton, the Black Panther Party of Illinois and Abbie Hoffman, among others.</li></ul>

Chicago 8 Trial Protest Photographs

Signed Autograph-Portrait edition of Lawson's extraordinary exposé of greed and corruption in American finance at the turn of the century, dedicated to "penitence and punishment."<ul><li>Thomas W. Lawson (American, 1857–1925).</li><li>Frenzied Finance: Volume I The Crime of Amalgamated.</li><li>New York, The Ridgway-Thayer Company, 1906</li><li>[4], xix, [3], 559, [1]pp.</li><li>Octavo.</li><li>Illustrated with 10 photogravure portraits.</li><li>Limited edition of 1,000 copies, signed by the author ("Yours very truly Thomas Lawson").</li><li>Bound in japon-backed blue boards, paper title-piece to spine.</li></ul> "One of the most influential texts ever written about the workings of the corporate world. Briefly stated, the book is a narrative account of 'the deviltry' and 'unpenalized crimes' of high finance that became standard practice for the Standard Oil Trust at the turn of last century" (Hess Collection). Lawson was one of his generation's most brilliant and eccentric stockbrokers. At the age of twelve, he left school to work as an office boy with a brokerage firm in Boston, and early in his career he began speculating in stocks. "He made a considerable 'killing' in railroad shares when he was only seventeen but lost his profits a few days later in another deal... He is said to have accumulated a million dollars by the time he was thirty... Despite his lack of formal education, he acquired by his own efforts an excellent command of English and a considerable degree of literary culture" (DAB). By 1897, he had become connected with the promotion of Amalgamated Copper, the name under which Standard Oil capitalists reorganized the great Anaconda mine and allied properties. On this stock they now made a handsome profit, with Lawson acting as their chief broker. The stock thereafter rapidly declined in price and many holders of it suffered heavy losses. In 1902, when Lawson, with Winfield M. Thompson, published The Lawson History of The America's Cup, the editor of Everybody's Magazine, learning of his grievance, induced him to write the allegedly true story of Amalgamated Copper, which he did under the title of Frenzied Finance — one of the most sensational successes in magazine history. The entire edition of the magazine containing the first installment was exhausted in three days. To journalistic instinct, Lawson added an easy, slashing style and a knack for colorful phrasing, which made his rough-and-tumble attack on the "money kings" vastly popular. The enmity aroused by the book cost Lawson dearly, and "many serious losses were wilfully inflicted upon him by antagonists. He lost his magnificent estate and died in comparative poverty" (DAB).

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Benjamin Franklin

Joseph Hatton

Frederick Douglass

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Alexis de Tocqueville

Thomas F. Daggett

Albert J. Beveridge

Washington Irving

David Bailie Warden

Thomas L. McKenney, James Hall

William H. Brown

Ernest Hemingway

Walker Evans

Robert Frank

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Christian Hines

Bill James

Alexis de Tocqueville

Lyndon B. Johnson

Attributed to Arthur Lee

Frederick Douglass

George Washington

John Speed

Various Authors

Meriwether Lewis, William Clark

Scott Kellar, David Gelernter

Scott Kellar, Ulrich Danckers, Jane Meredith

W. Nephew King

Thomas W. Lawson