For a collector of Hudson Valley material this pamphlet is a gem. It gives place names and a credible picture of life in those times. It even has him traveling to Kingston and later mentions that a defense attorney from Poughkeepsie was retained. For a collector with local interests this is great fun.
I can’t say I found this piece via Æ’s MatchMaker™ Software. Michael Brown, the Philadelphia rare book dealer, offered it in his catalogue no. 31 for $175 and I’m glad I bought it.
On MatchMaker™ I’m continuing to get a steady flow of matches and I find I’m becoming kind of fussy about what I purchase. There seems to be more material available than I expected.
Images can add a lot to a book collection and many people are always looking for them. Nineteenth century images of upstate New York and New England are recreated by Leornard Tantillo who lives in the Albany, New York area and maintains a website at copperkeel@aol.com where many of his period images are available for purchase. It is Mr. Tantillo's image of the City of Albany that appears on the first page of this article.
On www.abebooks.com there are five Jesse Strang items of which four are copies of this pamphlet in various states. A copy available in Virginia appears to be a very good deal at $50.00. Bill Reese offers a broadside which seems very appealing.
| [Strang, Jesse]: Anonymous: | EXECUTION, CONFESSION AAD[sic] DIEING WORDS OF JESSE STRANG, FOR THE MURDER OF JOHN WHIPPLE, AT ALBANY, AUGUST 27TH, 1827 [caption title]. [New York?: no imprint, ca. 1827]. Broadside, 26 x 22.5cm with irregular margins. Crudely printed on recto only, within mourning border, with woodcut coffin below caption title. Old folds, with a couple small breaks at folds not affecting text, some scattered foxing and spotting, ample margins somewhat creased and occasionally chipped or slightly torn at extreme edges, else very good. A very scarce broadside printing of a poem occasioned by the sensational Strang case. Strang, using an alias after the abandonment of his wife, lived in Albany on the Van Rensselear estate, working for Whipple. Strang and Mrs. Whipple had an affair and she convinced Strang to kill her husband. "The murder of John Whipple was unusual in two respects; one, the actual killing followed months of the most careful planning and preparation; two, the guiding genius of the crime was his wife" - McDade. Popular interest in this case of adultery and murder ran high, and McDade records no less than a dozen prose imprints relating to it. This particular effort, presented in twenty-two quatrains, devotes two-thirds of its length to a piety- laden account of the events, and the remainder to a verse adaptation of his address from the gallows. Not in American Imprints. Bookseller Inventory #WRCLIT 44047 Price: US$ 550.00 (Convert Currency) Bookseller: William Reese Company - Literature, ABAA, New Haven, CT, U.S.A. |
