New Haven: Connecticut Branch, W. O. N. P. R., 1933. Broadside. 7" x 10 1/4" This is an original handbill from a major women's group soliciting votes to repeal Prohibition in 1933. Women's organizations--particularly the Women's Christian Temperance Union--are strongly associated with passage of the 18th Amendment to the..... More
[Yonkers]: [The Forbes Press], [1934]. First edition. Hardcover. Octavo. 107 pages. Charmingly written travel narrative by a woman who, along with her husband, toured Southern California by automobile in the early 20th century. They shipped their car from New York to California, then took the train themselves by way of..... More
New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, (1947). First printing. Hardcover. Octavo. [iv], 314 pages. Accounts of ten prominent murder cases in San Francisco between 1870 and 1936, including those of Theodore Durrant, Codelia Botkin, Emma LeDoux, and Jerome Braun von Selz. A volume in the Regional Murder Series edited by..... More
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1938. First printing. Black & white photographs, drawings. Cloth over boards. Octavo. 205 pages. An enlightening portrait of John Wilkes Booth written by the person who probably knew and loved him best--his sister, Asia. While Edwin Booth and other family members tried to blot..... More
Philadelphia: Rodgers Publishing Company, 1897. First printing. Black and white plates. Clover over boards. Octavo. 254 pages. The first biography of the 19th century actress and businesswoman, Laura Keene, written by one who knew her. Keene, of course, is best known in connection with the Lincoln assassination and the play..... More
New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922. First edition. Numerous black and white photographic illustrations. Cloth over boards. Octavo. xx, 1562 pages. A wealth of information on the origin, purposes, organization, and accomplishments of the American Red Cross Nursing Service, founded in 1909. Much coverage of activities related to U.S. participation..... More
[San Francisco]: Soheyl Dahi/Sore Dove Press, 2014. Limited edition, one of 30 copies. Portfolio. 10 1/4" x 12" Here is Ferlinghetti's scathing 1962 letter to TIME in defense of Jack Kerouac and his then-latest-book "Big Sur." TIME had reviewed the book in what Ferlinghetti here calls a "...snide, sneering, condescending..... More
New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, (2003). First printing of the revised edition. Drawings by Maurice Sendak. Hardcover. Square duodecimo. [viii], 334 pages. A superb selection of 27 stories chosen from Grimm's tales. In addition to several familiar standards there are many that will be new to most readers, such..... More
Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1851. First edition. Original cloth over boards. Duodecimo. 344 pages. Hawthorne's masterful novel of a New England family's ancestral guilt and atonement tinged with supernatural retribution. The setting is the 1668 Turner-Ingersoll Mansion in Salem, Massachusetts, once owned by Hawthorne's relatives. "The House..... More
Cleveland: Harris-Intertype Corporation, 1959. Illustrated in color. Single sheet. 19 3/4" x 27" (image 16 1/4" x 23 3/4"). A literary pictorial map by Everett Henry, combining colorful cartography and imagery from the great American classic, Huckleberry Finn. Brief captions accompany the depicted scenes from the book. More
Baltimore: N. Hickman, [1858]. First printing. Leather over boards. Duodecimo. 96 pages. First printing of the principal reference for names, ranks, and duties of the local militiamen who responded to the attempted British invasion of Baltimore during the War of 1812. This was, of course, the event which had Francis..... More
San Francisco: Hutchings & Rosenfield, Publishers, (1860). First edition. Black and white engravings. Original cloth over boards. Octavo. 236 pages. An excellent copy of this important California title. Hutchings was one of the primary early promoters of what is now Yosemite National Park, and this book was the first to..... More
Baltimore: Printed by W. M. Innes, 1863. Later card covers. Octavo. 48 pages. Interesting and uncommon pamphlet published in Baltimore during the Civil War which is highly critical of Abraham Lincoln, New England, and Abolitionists. The author sees disunion and the Civil War as resulting from self-righteous New Englanders too..... More
(Providence): (Providence Visitor Press), (1927). First edition. Original cloth over boards. Octavo. [xii], 336 pages. A history of the nursing services of 21 orders of Catholic nuns during the Civil War. Interestingly, orders from both the North and South are included. These accounts and the names of the Sister Nurses..... More
New York: Robert Carter & Brothers, 1857. First edition. Original cloth over boards. Duodecimo. [xii], 203 pages, plus 12 page publisher catalogue. The first published collection of poetry by Francis Scott Key. "The Star Spangled Banner" is the first poem in the book, appearing on pp. 31-33 after an introductory..... More
Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, (1940). First printing. Black and white plates. Cloth over boards. Octavo. 400 pages. Excellent history of the famous 19th century theatrical family whose youngest son, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated Abraham Lincoln in 1865. Well researched, with extensive section of commentary and notes at rear. This copy..... More
Detroit: The Griswold Press, 1926. Pictorial map. Single sheet. 22 1/2" x 35" McCandlish's famous 1926 Bootlegger's Map satirizing Prohibition. All manner of alcoholic beverages are celebrated through comical drawings and puns of various place names, such as "BAR-Harbor," "Chi-KEG-o," and "Missis-SIP-i." A very attractive copy of this iconic..... More
Boston: Beacon Press, [2004] and (2005). First editions thus. Hardcovers. Octavos. xii, 255 pages and [xii], 178 pages. Fantastic collection of work from this master poet of the natural world and the fundamental questions of life and death. Selected by Mary Oliver herself, with volume two containing 42 new poems..... More
New York: Rinehart & Company, Inc., (1948). First printing. Black & white photos, data tables. Hardcover. Octavo. xvi, 541 pages. The scarce account of efforts by the Office of Strategic Services to get control of their recruiting of operatives in the middle of World War II. The OSS was founded..... More
New York: James Miller, [1860]. Hand colored. Single sheet. Approximately 17 1/4" x 29 1/4" Street map of New York City that was drawn by Humphrey Phelps in 1857. Wards are shaded in different colors. Also included are parts of Brooklyn, Hoboken, and Jersey City. Includes a guide to locate..... More
New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, (1932). First edition. Drawings by Edwin Tunis. Full cloth. Octavo. xxiv, 326 pages. The classic collection of old Maryland recipes for everything from oysters, crabs, terrapin and fowl, to breads, cakes, puddings, beverages and desserts. Each of the 500 plus recipes in Frederick Stieff's..... More
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, (1932). First printing. Cloth over boards. Octavo. xviii, 156 pages. A well-documented study of the negative effects of national Prohibition and the Eighteenth Amendment, written by one who had been an advocate for Prohibition a decade earlier. Tillitt cites data that shows the tremendous..... More