The Collaborative Project:Who Says You Can't Go Home Again
- by Bruce E. McKinney
New York Journal published at Esopus.
One is a piece he wrote to present to the Ulster County Historical Society in 1861 and the other is a Pestalozzian School Song Book dated 1855. In our upcoming auctions section last fall I found the September 22, 1777 edition of the New York Journal that had relocated to Kingston after the British occupied New York City. I recently found a nice copy of a Report on the Ulster Mine at Ellenville, dated 1852 with a chart tracing their efforts to mine lead and copper. I found this first in the AED and then looked on line and found a very nice copy for sale. Several years ago I found a copy of Washington’s Farewell Address to the People of the United States that was printed in Hudson, New York in 1812 and presented to a John Adams. The American Antiquarian Society of Worcester helped me try to figure out if this could be the John Adams (probably not!). I found online the publisher’s dummy of a book titled Enoch Crosby or The Spy Unmasked that was printed in Fishkill at the Fishkill Weekly Times in 1886. It is a reprint of a very rare first edition but probably is very rare (but not necessarily valuable) in its own right. I found online a lovely copy of The Geology of the Hudson River and the Adjacent Regions printed in New York in 1820 with a wonderful hand colored chart of the Hudson River running as far north as Marlborough. This was listed on ABE by a New York dealer and I found it doing place-name searches. I have two copies of the first edition of Tom Quick, the Indian Slayer published in Monticello in 1852 and a single tender copy of a reprint of it made on newsprint at Deposit, New York in 1894, all found and purchased on the net. I found on ABE a book printed in Marlborough for Eldorous Dayton titled Legal Advice, A Compendium of Law of the State of New York. I also have acquired online a variety of local imprints of no particular distinction except they are old, clearly rare, and very inexpensive to accumulate. For these kinds of things I try to draw the line at $35 but occasionally spend more. For books with interesting content I’ve spent as much as $1,200 online as I did for Barnabas Bidwell’s The Susquehannah Title printed at Catskill in 1796, $300 for The Constitutions of the Sixteen States which compose the Confederated Republic of America, published at Newburgh in 1800, and $100 for The History of Little Henry and His Bearer, published at Catskill in 1818. Recently I bought at New England Book Auctions, for about $8,000, three broadsides printed at Fishkill for General Washington who was commanding his army at their wintering location at Newburgh. NEBA doesn’t have a website yet so this material is more difficult to follow.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Francesco Colonna. Hypnerotomachie, Paris, 1546, Parisian calf by Wotton Binder C for Marcus Fugger. €200,000 to €300,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Nausea. De principiis dialectices Gorgias, and other works, Venice, 1523, morocco gilt for Cardinal Campeggio. €3,000 to €4,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 17: Billon. Le fort inexpugnable de l'honneur, Paris, 1555, Parisian calf gilt for Peter Ernst, Graf von Mansfeld. €120,000 to €180,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Salinger, J.D. The Graham Family archive, including autographed letters, an inscribed Catcher, a rare studio photograph of the author, and more. $120,000 to $180,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of Sense and Sensibility, the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 16: Massachusetts General Court. A powerful precursor to the Declaration of Independence: "every Act of Government … without the Consent of the People, is … Tyranny." $40,000 to $60,000.
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
![<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/9a74d9ff-42dd-46a1-8bb2-b636c4cec796.png "<b>Sotheby’s, Dec. 16:</b> [Austen, Jane]. A handsome first edition of <i>Sense and Sensibility,</i> the author's first novel. $60,000 to $80,000.")
