Wilmington: 1807. Single sheet, folded in half to approximately 7 7/8" x 9 5/8" Handwritten letter from Founding Father John Dickinson just months before he died. The letter is to James Vaux, a prominent Philadelphia Quaker, regarding an apparent shared interest in a lease. Dickinson writes: ------ "Esteemed..... More
London: The Folio Society, 2022. First edition thus. Illustrated by Gérard DuBois. Hardcover. Octavo. [x], 303 pages. McCarthy's masterpiece, and to date his only novel based on historical characters and events. Set in the American Southwest just after the Mexican War, McCarthy brings some unforgettable characters to life--including the landscape..... More
![Item #1277 There is Life in the Old Land Yet [and] Southern Cross (along with 30 other pieces of...](https://backcreekbooks.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/1277_1.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&v=1682441763)
Baltimore: Various publishers, 1860s. Some illustrated title pages. Cloth over boards. Folio. Various original paginations. This is a bound volume of individual pieces of sheet music, mostly published in Baltimore in the 1860s. Most appear to be popular songs of the day but two are rare and decidedly pro-Southern songs..... More
Glasgow: James Hedderwick & Son, 1837. From the Fourth Boston Edition. Morocco-backed marbled boards. Duodecimo. 52 pages. Channing was a prominent Unitarian clergyman and very much opposed to the annexation of Texas, which he believed would in essence amount to a deliberate spreading of slavery in the nation. Channing blamed..... More
New York: New York City Transit Authority, 1972. First printing. Color-coded route map. Single sheet approximately 18" x 21" printed on both sides. Folds to about 3 1/2" x 7" Here is the important first printing of Massimo Vignelli's 1972 NYC Transit Authority map. Vignelli sacrificed geographic accuracy for simplicity..... More
Philadelphia: Henry Carey Baird, 1852. First edition. Frontispiece illustration, cuts, diagrams, tables. Original leather over boards. Octavo. 302 pages plus 23 pages of ads at rear. Septimus Norris was a mechanical engineer and steam locomotive designer whose brother, William Norris, had built the first locomotive in the United States. At..... More
New York: Harper & Brothers, 1929. First edition. Drawings by Erick Berry. Cloth-backed decorative boards. Octavo. [x], 255 pages. From the jacket: "A novel of negro life, of elemental passion and tenderness." Attractive dust jacket. More
![Item #1268 Tiro Aereo [with] Tiro di Caduta [with] Appunti di Armamento e Tiro. Military Aviation](https://backcreekbooks.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/1268_1.jpg?width=320&height=427&fit=bounds&v=1682438297)
(S.l.): (S.n.), [1920s?]. Diagrams, some tipped in photographic illustrations. Cloth over boards with vellum spine and fore corners. Folio. 100 pages [and] 127 pages [and] 113 pages. Three instructive texts, all in Italian, concerning the accurate use of mounted machine guns and the dropping of bombs from airplanes. These are..... More
[Boston]: Young & Minns, Printers, 1800. Single sheet. 6 1/2" x 8 3/4" (approximate). Rare broadside printing of two memorial odes on the death of George Washington. Performed at Boston's Old South Church on February 8, 1800. Just 7 copies in OCLC. Ref. SABIN 95893; EVANS 38642. More
[Philadelphia?]: [Province of Pennsylvania], 1734. Single sheet, 7 5/8" x 12 1/4" A Proprietary warrant requiring Thomas Griffitts, Esq., Deputy Keeper of the Great Seal, to affix the Seal to a land patent for 200 acres of land in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The warrant is written out by hand and..... More
New York: Rinehart and Company, Inc., (1948). First edition, first state. One map. Hardcover. Octavo. [vi], 721 pages. Mailer's first novel, and the first popular novel to come out of the experiences of World War II. An excellent portrayal of the American fighting man in that war, based in part..... More
London: Printed for the Author and sold by A. Millar, 1743. First edtion. Half leather and brown cloth over boards. Octavos. [24], xxvii, 354; [ii], 422; and [x], 421 pages. The first volume contains Fielding's youthful poems and some essays, preceded by a 22 page "List of Subscrebers" (sic) to..... More
New York: Charles B. Norton, 1853. First edition. Chromolith frontispiece, numerous plates. Cloth over boards. Folio. 216, (22 ads) pages. A well-illustrated chronicle of the origin, rise, progress, and triumphs of American marine steam engineering to the mid-19th century, by the Engineer-in-Chief of the U.S. Navy. Includes diagrams and statistics..... More
Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1860. Half leather and marbled paper over boards. Duodecimo. viii, 383 pages. A nicely bound 1860 volume of Emerson, including his famous essay on Nature and several lectures and addresses. Among the latter are "The American Scholar," "The Transcendentalist," and "The Young American." More
[Washington City]: [National Executive Committee], [1860]. Folded but not bound or opened. Octavo. 8 pages. Campaign pamphlet for the candidacy of John C. Breckinridge and John Lane for President and Vice President in 1860. Breckinridge was then Vice President under James Buchanan. These were the nominees of a Southern, pro-slavery..... More
New York: Random House, 1930. Rockwell Kent. Hardcover. Duodecimo. xxxii, 825 pages. The first trade edition of what is widely regarded as the definitive edition of Moby Dick. Indeed, if not for this particular edition it is likely no one would know this book today. Melville's great novel was not..... More
Washington: Associated Publishers, Inc., (1943). First edition. Cloth over boards. Octavo. xiv, 248 pages. Scarce biography of Harriet Tubman. Among the people interviewed by the author were relatives of Tubman. Published by Dr. Carter G. Woodson's publishing house. Includes a section of bibliographical references and an index. Ref. BLOCKSON 2980. More
(S.l.): Privately printed, (1940 and 1945). First edition. Black and white plates, cuts, facsimiles, one map. Cloth over boards. Octavo. 163 pages and 94 pages. An interesting and valuable compilation of contemporary narratives of travel on the Butterfield Overland Mail Company routes. Ther first volume contains four accounts of travel..... More
Baltimore: Kelly & Piet, Publishers, 1866. Cloth over boards. Duodecimo. 94 pages. This scarce volume of Confederate poetry was originally published in Richmond in 1865, but most of that edition went up in flames when the city fell at the end of the Civil War. This is the second edition..... More
New York: Printed for the Naval History Society by the De Vinne Press, 1918-1919. Limited edition. Three portraits. Hardcovers. Octavos. xvi, 440 and xx, 492 pages. A very valuable source on the Union navy's strategic and administrative aspects of the Civil War. Fox's most notable correspondents are Samuel F. Du..... More
Chicago: Woman's Temperance Publication Association, 1889. First edition. Wrappers. Duodecimo. .x, 104 pages + 1 leaf publisher ads. The first part of this manual gives a history of National Prohibitory Amendments and Congressional action in relation to them, including arguments, indorsements of organizations and newspapers, etc. The second part consists..... More
New York: [1895]. Single sheet, 8" x 9 7/8", folded once. Suffragist pioneer Elizabeth Cady Stanton here writes to a Mrs. Thomas, one of the 26 women on the "Revising Committee" who, along with Stanton, wrote "The Woman's Bible." The letter is dated October 20, from Stanton's address at 26..... More
New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, (1956). First edition. Paintings, some color. Hardcover. Octavo. x, 302 pages. Chamberlain's memoir details his personal adventures in Mexico and the American Southwest before, during, and after the Mexican War. It is the primary source for Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece, "Blood Meridian." Though nearly all..... More
Havana: Francisco Rojo Garcia, [c.1940s]. Color map, monochrome vignettes. Single sheet. 25 1/8" x 35 1/4", folds into 5" x 8 3/4" printed covers. A very attractive map of Havana, printed in blue and yellow, bordered photographic vignettes of important buildings and sites in monochrome. Reverse has a complete road..... More
Baltimore: The Patapsco Land Company, (1874). First edition. Large fold-out map. Hardcover. Octavo. 100 pages. This is a detailed prospectus seeking investment in the newly reorganized Patapsco Land Company, which intended to turn its holdings at Curtis Bay into a major seaport and railhead. The background information included therefore gives..... More