Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - October - 2004 Issue
The Americas from Helen R. Kahn Rare Books
none
Mary Eastman was the wife of Captain Seth Eastman, who served at Fort Snelling in the Minnesota Territory in the 1850s. Captain Eastman was also an artist, and his drawings accompany Mrs. Eastman's text in The American Aboriginal Port Folio, published in 1853. This is an excellent report on Plains Indians' customs, rituals and beliefs in the middle of the 19th century. Item 59. $1,450.
Item 95 is a copy of The Quebec Gazette from June 22, 1837. The timing is what's interesting. This, naturally, was the year of the Revolt of 1837, and the Gazette includes a proclamation from the Governor-General of Upper and Lower Canada calling on all military and peace officers "to oppose and frustrate the insidious designs adverted to in this Proclamation..." The "insidious designs" referred to were meetings that had been held with "their object resistance to the lawful authority of the King and Parliament, and the subversion of the laws." A revolt would break out in November of that year, but unlike the one in the nation to Canada's south, the British would put this one down quickly. For now, England's toehold in the Americas would be spared. $435.
Item 129 is the third English edition of A Voyage Round the World, performed in the Years 1785, 1786, 1787, and 1788...by Jean Perousse. The third English is generally considered the best English edition, as the first two were abridged versions of the original French. This one, from 1798, is complete. Captain Perousse was a French navigator who led this expedition on behalf of his homeland to find a Northwest Passage through America from the Pacific side. Like so many others, he was not successful, but his explorations brought him to the west coast of America, Alaska, Siberia, China, Hawaii, the South Seas, and finally, Australia. From there his expedition disappeared, and nothing was known of his fate until wreckage was discovered 40 years later. $10,500.
Helen R. Kahn & Associates Rare Books, Maps & Manuscripts has a website at www.hrkahnbooks.com or may be reached by phone at 514-844-5344.
